Safety First – ODOE and Partners Inspect Giant Decommissioned Naval Reactor Before Transport

Last month, Oregon Department of Energy’s Nuclear Safety and Emergency Preparedness Assistant Director Maxwell Woods and Hydrogeologist Tom Sicilia joined staff from the Oregon Health Authority and the State of Washington at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. Here they are (pictured right) on the barge with a decommissioned submarine reactor compartment, ready to be shipped out of Puget Sound, down the Washington coast, and up the Columbia River to the Hanford site for final disposal.

Since 1986, the U.S. Navy has been disposing deactivated compartments from nuclear submarines and cruisers in a trench at the Hanford site. So far, the trench contains approximately 135 compartments. The Navy removes the irradiated nuclear fuel from the reactors; cuts out a section of the submarine or cruiser containing the reactor compartment; and welds steel plates over any opening to seal the compartments. The Navy conducts this work at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington. The compartments, classified as low-level radioactive waste, are then sent by barge down the Washington coastline and up the Columbia River to Hanford. Oregon takes an active interest in the program because the Navy ships the compartments 310 miles up the Columbia River. The Oregon Department of Energy supports the safe transport of decommissioned Naval reactor compartments through the state, along with the Oregon Health Authority’s Radiation Protection Services and the Washington Department of Health who occasionally inspect the shipments prior to departure to ensure they meet state and federal transport regulations.

Learn more about the important work of ODOE’s Nuclear Safety and Emergency Preparedness division and the Radioactive Waste Transport Program.