Nuclear power plant to be decommissioned

[TexasTowelie]

FAIRBANKS — An Army Corp of Engineers team is planning the formal decommissioning of the only nuclear power plant ever built in Alaska, Fort Greely’s SM-1A plant.

The SM-1A plant provided steam and electricity to the Army post near Delta Junction off and on between 1962 and 1972. It was one of eight experimental projects to test the use of small nuclear power plants at remote installations.

It’s expected to take about 10 years to plan, contract out and complete the SM-1A cleanup, according to a Baltimore-based team from the Army Corps of Engineers that came to Fort Greely for meetings last month.

One particular challenge of decommissioning SM-1A is that the steam plant previously powered by the nuclear reactor is still in use, although today it’s powered by a diesel-fired power plant.

Read more: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/nuclear-power-plant-to-be-decommissioned/article_d9ba87c4-580f-11e8-a3cb-6bea95b1bfd3.html

[secondwind]

1. When I see the words "contract out", I immediately think

of The Swamp. It wasn’t this way before. 🙁