The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a full technical review of a request that would eliminate the requirement that the agency authorize dismantlement and disposal of the reactor on the retired nuclear-powered merchant vessel NS Savannah.
The regulator as of early January had completed its acceptance review of the Oct. 31, 2017, license amendment request from the U.S. Maritime Administration for the ship, according to a Jan. 4 NRC letter posted online Wednesday.
Primarily, the amendment would remove one license condition: “The licensee shall not dismantle or dispose of the facility without prior approval of the Commission.” However, that work would still be subject to NRC regulations on modifications to nuclear facilities and issuances of amendments.
The NS Savannah operated from 1959 to 1971, and is now docked in Baltimore. Its reactor has been defueled. The Maritime Administration, a branch of the U.S. Transportation Department, estimates it will take about $110 million over seven years for decontamination, dismantlement, and license termination. The agency received $24 million for this work in the federal omnibus budget for fiscal 2017; it did not request any additional funding for fiscal 2018, which began on Oct. 1 of last year.
There was no immediate word Wednesday regarding the NRC timeline for the technical review of the license amendment application or the Maritime Administration’s schedule for disposing of the NS Savannah’s reactor.
