Navy Seeks Vendor to Dismantle First Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier

Date: August 22, 2016

Source: US Navy

The Navy is seeking a contractor to dismantle the reactor plants on its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN-65) and to dispose of all low-level radioactive waste. According to a request for information issued Aug. 1, work would begin fiscal year 2019 on the inactivated and defueled former the Enterprise. "This work would be accomplished either before, during, or after demilitarizing, dismantling, and recycling of the remaining non-radioactive sections of the ship," the RFI reads. The Navy will provide the vendor waterborne delivery of a floating center section of the ship containing the reactor plants to the contractor's chosen site. After CVN-65 was inactivated at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, the ship was towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington. There the ship would be dismantled and the Navy would begin to dispose of the eight reactor compartment packages at an Department of Energy site in Hanford, WA.

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