State and federal agencies plan a public meeting this week to discuss cleanup plans for a naval prototype reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.
A cleanup strategy favored by DOE and the other agencies would cost more than $70 million and involve complete removal of the prototype intended to eliminate long-term environmental liability and significant contamination. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management is in charge of the cleanup under a 2019 agreement with the Naval Reactor office, officials said at the Wednesday meeting.
The Amentum-led Idaho prime contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition, will lead the work.
The public comment period on remediation of the Submarine 5th Generation General Electric Prototype Facility and its defueled reactor vessel at the Idaho National Laboratory started Oct. 15 and is slated to run through Nov.15, according to a press release last week.
The facility was a nuclear propulsion research and training prototype used at the Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho for 30 years, from 1965 to 1995, according to the release.
A public meeting about the planned cleanup and the ongoing comment period was scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Mountain time on Oct. 23, at the Sun Valley Resort.
