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 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 Corps with continued expenses to maintain the facility and would not allow the site to be used for any other purposes, the draft FONSI says.
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.
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.
