The final voyage of the formerly nuclear reactor-equipped barge STURGIS ended Thursday in Brownsville, Texas, where the vessel will be dismantled after being decommissioned at the Port of Galveston.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on Sept. 14 that it had completed the nearly $66.5 million decommissioning of the world’s first floating atomic energy facility — a former World War II Liberty Ship that carried a reactor for power generation operations in Panama from 1968 to 1974.
The three-year program managed by contractor APTIM Federal Services included full removal of the MH-1A reactor and other radioactive waste totaling 1.5 million pounds of material. The waste was sent to a disposal complex in West Texas.
Towing to the International Shipbreaking facility in Brownsville began Tuesday and covered 300 nautical miles through the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Army Corps. The company will soon conduct a last round of radiological surveys of STURGIS. That is expected to last several days, Army Corps spokesman Chris Gardner said by email.
“In addition to the rigorous testing and retesting performed by the Corps of Engineers verifying that no radioactive materials remain on the STURGIS, ISL officials will conduct another independent survey to confirm that the vessel is clean,” Eduardo Campirano, port director and CEO for the Port of Brownsville, said in a press release. “We are confident the STURGIS is safe and poses no harm to the facilities of the port and the surrounding areas, otherwise it would not be allowed here.”
International Shipbreaking is expected by next May to complete work on its $1.9 million contract to dismantle the barge. It will start with one to two months of abatement of asbestos, lead, and other materials, followed by four to six months of actual dismantlement of the vessel, Gardner said.
Roughly 5,500 tons of steel and other materials are due to be smelted for future use.
The final anticipated price tag for decommissioning the STURGIS, not including shipbreaking, is close to double the amount of the original contract award of $34.6 million, which spiked via two modifications connected to the project’s “complexity and challenges,” Brenda Barber, project manager at the Army Corps’ Baltimore District’s Environmental and Munitions Design Center, said earlier this year.
Completion of decommissioning was also originally expected to be completed in fiscal 2016.
Among the challenges to the project, Army Corps officials said during an industry event in March, were the complexity of dismantling the reactor systems, a six-month delay in decommissioning while waiting on authorization from the Galveston City Council, and the necessity of treating the barge’s ballast water for lead contamination and then ship it for disposal as hazardous waste
