State and federal agencies said in a Wednesday analysis that teardown and removal of old U.S. Naval submarine reactor prototype facilities at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is the best remediation option.
That is according to an engineering evaluation/cost analysis published for demolition of Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse and Aircraft Carrier 1st Generation Westinghouse prototype facilities at the lab’s Naval Reactors Facility.
The 138-page analysis was published by DOE in collaboration with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. The agencies kicked off a 30-day public comment period, running until Nov. 11, which will include a virtual public hearing Oct. 20.
The document described four potential remediation plans and the fourth, which includes tearing down the prototype facilities and moving the low-level radioactive waste to the Idaho Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Disposal Facility, was rated as the best option.
The preferred option would reduce the “risk footprint” to the largest extent practicable, according to the document. This is a better approach than doing nothing, doing just surveillance and monitoring or grouting the reactor compartments, including the reactor vessels, into place, DOE said.
Removal and disposal of the Westinghouse submarine prototype reactor components would cost about $124 million, according to the analysis. In addition, removal and disposal of the aircraft carrier prototype facilities will be an estimated $143 million.
DOE and its Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory said recently removal is underway of some support buildings for Westinghouse’s power system for the USS NAUTILUS, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, DOE said.
Alternative 4 has the added benefit of returning the former locations of submarine and aircraft prototype structures to usable status within the security fence at the Naval Reactor Facility, according to the analysis.
“Both reactors were built above grade, have been defueled, and have been allowed to sit idle for about 30 years as radionuclides with the shortest half-lives have decayed to more acceptable levels,” DOE said in the analysis.
A link to download the analysis document is found on the website of Jacobs-led Idaho Environmental Coalition.
n May 2019, the Naval Reactors Program and DOE’s Office of Environmental Management inked an agreement saying the nuclear cleanup office would oversee remediation of Naval Reactors Program sites, according to the analysis.
