nuclear-news

A 770-ton portion of the now shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, known as SONGS for short, is slowly making its way to a final resting place at a disposal facility in Utah.

A reactor pressure vessel that helped Unit 1 at SONGS generate electricity left the plant’s premises May 24 via railand is now at an industrial park in North Las Vegas, Nevada, about to be taken some 450 miles north on roads, accompanied by a pair Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pilot cars, to the Utah border.

The shipment will then continue, reaching the Energy Solutions disposal site in the town of Clive, Utah, located about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City.

The old reactor vessel and its contents are designated as Class A low-level waste, considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the least hazardous of radioactive waste classifications. Encased in a carbon steel cylinder for the trip, the vessel contains pieces of radioactive metal and grout.

Officials with the Utah Department of Transportation are awaiting a permit from Emmert International, a company based in Oregon contracted to move the vessel to its final destination…..

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, officials expect the vessel to leave North Las Vegas June 29 and arrive in Clive seven days later.

The vessel will be loaded onto a trailer 122 feet long, with 45 axles. The trailer’s eight pieces are being put together with cranes at the Apex Industrial Park. Once assembled, the trailer will then take to the road, avoiding Interstate 15 by traveling on U.S. Highway 93, state Route 318, U.S. Highway 6, back to Highway 93 and eventually taking Interstate 80 into Utah.

Six heavy-duty Class 8 trucks with combined 4,000-horsepower will haul the vessel. The entire configuration will use 460 tires that are 18 inches wide to prevent damaging roads, bridges and public infrastructure. Emmert International will use hydraulic jacks to reinforce drainage culverts.

“It’s the heaviest load to ever traverse Nevada roadways,” Nevada Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Illia told the Review-Journal. ….. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-06-19/a-heavy-chunk-of-the-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-slowly-moving-to-utah