{"id":36988,"date":"2026-09-20T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=36988"},"modified":"2026-09-20T11:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T15:48:28","slug":"nuclear-reactor-vessel-trojan-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/nuclear-reactor-vessel-trojan-oregon\/36988\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1999, workers filled a 42-foot nuclear reactor vessel with 200 tons of concrete and moved the 1,020-ton package 300 miles by barge and a 320-wheel trailer, but 791 spent fuel assemblies from the same Oregon plant are still waiting in storage today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In August 1999, workers sent a 1,020-ton reactor vessel package<\/a> from Oregon\u2019s retired Trojan nuclear plant to a burial site in eastern Washington. Rather than cut the radioactive equipment into smaller pieces, they filled it with concrete and moved it as one sealed load. Its route included a barge trip up the Columbia River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The striking journey illustrates why shutting down a nuclear plant is not simply a demolition job. Keeping the vessel intact reduced the need to handle radioactive components, but it did not solve the separate problem of spent fuel<\/a>. More than two decades later, that fuel is still stored at the former plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the reactor stayed in one piece<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why not just take it apart? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission<\/a> estimated that the intact shipment would avoid more than 40 radioactive shipments and save about 67 person-rem of collective radiation dose compared with alternatives. That figure represents exposure added across a group, not a single worker\u2019s dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Old radioactive material from Oak Ridge could power the seafloor, but the underwater station still exists mostly in tests<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Project manager Steve Nichols told the Project Management Institute<\/a> that \u201ctaking the reactor out as one piece was a much better solution than the alternative.\u201d His team had compared worker safety, public safety, transportation risks, waste volume, and cost before choosing that approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s final cost was $21.9 million, according to the institute\u2019s account, about $19 million below the estimated cost of conventional disposal. Those savings came alongside lower expected radiation exposure, showing why breaking the equipment into smaller loads was not necessarily the better option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concrete turned the vessel into a shipping package<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The vessel was more than 42 feet long and contained stainless steel structures that had directed cooling water<\/a> during operation. Workers welded closures over its openings, drained it, and filled it with about 200 tons of low-density cellular concrete. Getting it out also required cutting a large opening in the containment building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concrete immobilized loose radioactive contamination, while added steel shielding reduced external radiation levels. Crews decontaminated and painted the exterior, then added plastic shrink wrap. These precautions contained radioactive material and limited exposure rather than making the radioactivity disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 270-mile voyage, followed by a crawl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A specially built, 240-foot barge and two tugboats carried the load through four sets of locks. According to the NRC, the 270-mile Columbia River voyage took about 36 hours, with Coast Guard vessels providing an escort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Port of Benton, the load continued overland on a trailer with 20 axles and 320 wheels. The NRC describes this final leg as approximately 30 miles at 5 mph, so that speed applies to the road journey, not the river voyage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Sweden imported 3.86 million metric tons of other countries\u2019 waste in 2024 and gets paid to burn it for heat and electricity, but the system still releases fossil CO2 and is not the same as recycling<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Burial took more than digging a hole<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The destination was US Ecology\u2019s commercial low-level radioactive waste<\/a> facility on the Hanford Reservation. Its disposal team prepared a dedicated trench 45 feet deep, designed to accommodate the package and at least five meters (about 16.4 feet) of soil above it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the ground needed testing to establish whether it could support the enormous load without dangerous rutting or slope failure. Workers placed the vessel in engineered support cradles, completing that operation by August 17, 1999. A ceremony on August 19 marked the beginning of burial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NRC called it the first U.S. shipment of an intact reactor vessel containing activated core internals. That distinction matters, because other reactor vessels had been shipped before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What disappeared from the Oregon site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Portland General Electric completed Trojan\u2019s decommissioning in December 2004, and Oregon\u2019s Energy Facility Siting Council approved the site\u2019s unrestricted release<\/a> in April 2005. The state explains that this designation allows uses including housing, although the spent-fuel installation remained a separate responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cooling tower was demolished in 2006, removing the plant\u2019s most recognizable landmark. But the disappearance of the power plant\u2019s buildings should not be confused with the departure of all its radioactive material<\/a>, as Oregon\u2019s continuing oversight of the fuel-storage installation makes clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nuclear fuel is still waiting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, PGE transferred Trojan\u2019s 791 spent nuclear fuel assemblies into dry storage<\/a>. They remain in 34 large steel-and-concrete casks standing upright on a concrete pad, according to the Oregon Department of Energy. These are separate from the reactor vessel buried in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More: Wind turbine blades are built to survive storms for decades, but Sweden is testing how to take them apart afterward<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The state says the fuel will stay until the federal government establishes a national repository or an interim consolidated storage facility. For nearby communities, that makes continued monitoring and long-term storage planning<\/a> part of the plant\u2019s legacy, even after power generation has ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power plant is gone, but the responsibility for its fuel remains. The official site overview was published on the Oregon Department of Energy website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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