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A1W
kp88:
Whatever happened with the Navy prototypes in Idaho Falls? I assume they've all been bulldozed over, but is anything left of A1W, S1W, or S5G? I ran across a picture of S5G the other day, so, I'm just curious.
bigdog46:
Looking at google maps the bldgs are still standing but memory has it that all 3 plants have been decommed. ECF is still operating to the best of my knowledge.
Regards
Fermi2:
S1W has been a green field since sometime in the 90s. The buildings for A1W and S5G are still there. ECF will be decommisioned sometime soon. The DOe plan for the site is available online someplace.
Mike
ISFSI:
Yep...S1W long gone... :'(
I had my name in there a long time ago....turns out my Granddad had put it together years before. ;D
Those were the days...
kp88:
From the Idaho Falls newspaper, I'm not smart enough to send the link.
Much of what became Idaho National Laboratory -- the Chemical Processing Plant, the Advanced Test Reactor -- had missions closely linked to the Navy's work in Idaho.
NRF was born out of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover's belief that simulation programs were no substitute for real experience with nuclear reactors. As a result, NRF was home to three nuclear propulsion prototypes: A1W, S1W and S5G.
From the early 1950s to the mid-1990s, NRF was where the U.S. Navy sent sailors for training while it tested and refined nuclear fuels and reactor designs. Nearly 40,000 Navy personnel learned to operate surface and submarine nuclear power plants.
Even though training has stopped, the Expended Core Facility is where the Navy continues to ship spent nuclear fuel for processing and storage. In fact, one of the driving factors behind the state's 1995 spent fuel settlements was the Navy's need to send its spent fuel to Idaho. Today, ECF remains the only active facility at NRF.
Under the 1995 agreement, the Navy must move spent fuel to safer water basins, place it into dry storage by 2023 and ship all of it out of Idaho by 2035. If the DOE or the Navy does not meet its respective obligations, the state can close its borders to further shipments.
NRF has already constructed a Dry Fuel Storage Facility, which is intended to safely store naval spent fuel in a dry condition until it can be moved to either a permanent disposal location, such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada or some other storage location outside of Idaho.
http://www.idahonews.com/special/siteofimpact/story.php?accession=1001-01272008
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