The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expects to complete decommissioning of a long-retired nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 2025, after which the property would be available for unrestricted use.
The five-year schedule would cover the full scope of decommissioning the SM-1 reactor and associated infrastructure: site preparation, material removal, disassembly, cleanup, waste disposal, waste transport, and site restoration.
None of that work is expected to generate any significant effect on the environment or surrounding communities, the Army Corps said in late December in a draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for the upcoming project.
“The Proposed Action has been thoroughly reviewed by USACE and it has been determined that it will have no significant adverse effects on the local environment or quality of life that would require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as defined” under federal regulations, according to the draft FONSI.
Only one decommissioning alternative was studied in the documents: the “no-action” approach, in which the Army Corps would keep the reactor plant and associated infrastructure in storage mode under extended possession permits. However, that alternative would load the Army branch with continued expenses to maintain the facility and would not allow the site to be used for any other purposes, the draft FONSI says.
Bids for the decommissioning contract were accepted through Nov. 4. A contract for the plant decommissioning remans on track to be issued next summer, with on-site work starting in 2021, Brenda Barber, project manager for the USACE Baltimore District’s Environmental and Munitions Design Center, stated in a Dec. 20 program update.
Barber did not respond by deadline for RadWaste Monitor to a query regarding the procurement, including the number of bids submitted and the process of selection. No potential vendors to date have confirmed they have bid on the contract.
The Army operated the SM-1 reactor from 1957 to 1973 on the base about 20 miles from Washington, D.C. It was the service’s first nuclear power plant and the first pressurized-water reactor to be connected to a U.S. electrical grid, though the facility was primarily used for training. The plant was deactivated in 1973-1974, after which it was placed into “safe storage,” or SAFSTOR, mode.
Army Corps rules direct that a nuclear reactor be decommissioned no later than six decades after complete closure. That is in line with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission schedule for retired commercial nuclear power plants. About 14 years remain for the Army to deal with SM-1, according to the draft environmental assessment.
SM-1 stands the secured 300 Area at Fort Belvoir, on a roughly 3.6-acre patch of land alongside the Potomac River’s Gunston Cove. The plant encompasses the reactor structure (Building 372), a disused wastewater lift station, a warehouse, a water intake pier and pump facility, concrete discharge piping, and the outfall structure.
Decommissioning would involve extraction of all radioactive and nonradioactive materials, encompassing the intake pier and pumphouse, discharge piping, and outfall structure.
Packaging, transportation, and disposal of radioactive waste from decommissioning would stretch over the five-year project schedule, the Army Corps said. However, about half of it would occur from months 19 to 30.
In the draft environmental assessment, the Army Corps evaluated the potential impacts of decommissioning on: water resources; air quality; biological resources; radiological safety and health; occupational safety and health; cultural resources; transportation and traffic; nonradiological hazardous materials and waste, and nonradiological hazardous solid waste; and geology, topography, and soils.
In all areas, there was no more than “less than significant adverse impacts” from the decommissioning plan over the short term, and beneficial impacts or no impacts over the long term, the Army Corps found in the draft environmental assessment.
The Army Corps has scheduled public meetings on Jan. 7 and 8 to discuss the environmental review. Each session will include a presentation on the findings and a question-and-answer period.
Two on-post sessions at Fort Belvoir are scheduled for Jan. 7 at Thurman Hall, Building 247, 270 Kuhn Road. The afternoon event will begin at 1 p.m. with an open house and poster session, followed by the presentation at 2 p.m. The evening event begins at 6:30 p.m., with the presentation at 7:30 p.m. These meetings are limited to Pentagon military and civilian personnel, residents of Fort Belvoir, and base contractors, due to the installation’s security requirements.
A fully open meeting is planned for Jan. 8 at the Fairfax South County Office, Room 221, 8350 Richmond Highway in Alexandria. The open house will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation at 7:30 p.m.
The Army Corps in 2018 completed decommissioning of the reactor on the STURGIS barge, under contractor APTIM Federal Services. It is gearing up for decommissioning of the SM-1A reactor at Fort Greely, Alaska, with a formal request for bids anticipated in 2021.
