Second and final nuclear reactor of the year packaged up and ready to be moved to Hanford!
Two submarines pass through the United States Navy Ship-Submarine Recycling Program each year. The Reactor Compartment Disposal process consists of defueling and removing the nuclear core, which is moved separately by rail to the Expended Core Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory. But because the reactor compartment (RC) itself is made mostly of lead shielding that underwent decades of neutron bombardment, the RC is treated as low-level hazardous waste and as such it cannot be recycled.
Instead, the entire RC is sliced out of the submarine, and the ends are capped. This uses the sub pressure hill itself to create a sealed container.
The “package” is then put on a barge and moved about 700 miles from the naval yard near Seattle out to the Pacific, down to Oregon, then up the Columbia River to the Hanford Nuclear Site.
The sealed “package” is 34′ tall by 45′ long and weighs 1,680 tons. Lead shielding and minor radioactivity from decades of neutron bombardment classify the contents as low-level hazardous waste. Cobalt 60, which has a half-life of 6 years, is the dominant radioactive nuclide.
The package is then loaded onto a self-propelled modular transporter and dragged another 25 miles with giant “land tugs” into the Hanford Site, where it is placed in a huge pit known as Trench 94 with about 130+ other former reactor compartments. The pit is left open so satellites can see into it for treaty purposes, but the pit will eventually be filled with clay and cement.
