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The draft EIS/OEIS has finally been released - a substantial read at 586 pages. There is also a 12 page summary. Virtual public meetings to discuss the proposals will be held in September.
The full draft and the summary can be downloaded from:
The preferred option is (unsurpisingly) commercial recycling at one of three locations - Hampton Roads, Mobile or Brownsville - with the dismantled reactors also taken to a commercial contractor's site rather than the DOE Hanford facility which takes the reactors from PSNS.
Newport News Shipbuilding has a contract to store the carrier until September 2024. After that it is planned to be towed to its final destination.
The report argues that recyling at the naval shipyard would require investment in barges, lifitng gear and the unloading facilities at the Port of Benton if dual reactor compartment packages were shipped from Puget Sound. This was the shipyard's preferred option apparently because there is only a single bulkhead between the pairs of reactor compartments.
While that is correct it ignores the fact that most of the same investment will be required for the recycled reactors from the Long Beach and future decomissioned Ohio class SSGN/SSBNs because they are too heavy as well for the present equipment.
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