The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office said this week it is making solid progress on taking down a pair of old Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program prototype facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory.
In a Tuesday press release, the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) said it is tearing down 1960s era structures around the Aircraft Carrier 1st Generation Westinghouse (A1W) prototype, including the generator building and administrative offices.
Most of the structures have been demolished down to ground level and removal of large mechanical components from the buildings should be done later this year, EM said in the release. Also, this year, crews should finish deactivating the crane house, which was a mobile refueling and maintenance structure for the A1W prototype.
EM and its cleanup contractor, Amentum-led Idaho Environmental Coalition, took over responsibility for deactivation and demolition of legacy Naval reactor prototype facilities at Idaho National Laboratory in 2022, according to the release.
Work will continue at A1W and Submarine 5th Generation General Electric Prototype at Idaho through fiscal 2031, according to the DOE release.