Cleanup Crews Making Progress on Idaho Site Reactor Decommissioning

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – EM crews at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site are making significant progress decommissioning the prototype for a reactor plant used for the first nuclear-powered submarine.

Known as the Submarine 1st Generation Westinghouse (S1W) prototype, the land-based reactor was built inside a section of a submarine hull at the Naval Reactors Facility on the Arco Desert west of Idaho Falls. The Office of Naval Reactors entered into an agreement with EM to carry out the S1W facility demolition and other deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) efforts.

Crews with EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition are dismantling the S1W’s hull and engine compartments. They have also begun deactivating the reactor compartment and associated systems by removing shielding components to prepare the reactor vessel for eventual disposition at the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility at the INL Site. CERCLA stands for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.

To date, the project has sent an estimated 250 tons of non-radiological contaminated metals for recycling. The S1W deactivation and demolition (D&D) project is scheduled for completion in November 2025.

EM workers have begun early deactivation and decommissioning activities at the Aircraft Carrier 1st Gen. Westinghouse (A1W) prototype with D&D work on the ancillary buildings around the A1W aircraft carrier prototype. They have demolished a non-contaminated concrete retention basin and one of the massive steam condensers for A1W. This early work has cleared space to support equipment staging for future D&D work inside the prototype.

Turnover of the main A1W facility for D&D, which remains on schedule, is being done in a phased approach in close coordination with the EM and Naval Reactors contractors.

Between 1954 and 1995, the INL Site’s Naval Reactors Facility was home to three active nuclear propulsion prototypes — the S1W, A1W and the Submarine 5th Gen. General Electric. Although these historic prototype facilities are no longer used, they provided important testing opportunities for the Navy and training for nearly 40,000 personnel.

-Contributor: Carter Harrison