Name: A heavy chunk of the San Onofre nuclear plant is slowly moving to Utah
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A heavy chunk of the San Onofre nuclear plant is slowly moving to Utah

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement 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 and 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 in the town of Clive, Utah, located about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City. AdvertisementThe 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 are awaiting a permit from , a company based in Oregon contracted to move the vessel to its final destination. “We don’t foresee any issues based on our conversations (with Emmert International) about all of the specifications and guidelines needed,” said . Energy Solutions is being tight-lipped about the shipment’s journey. A company spokesman in an email to the Union-Tribune declined a request for an interview, saying, “Nothing new to report at this time.” , 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. The reactor pressure vessel once held nuclear fuel at SONGS when Unit 1 was generating electricity between 1968 and 1992. For 18 years, the vessel sat on the north end of the plant, covered in a shell of steel 2 inches thick with a top and bottom each 3 inches thick to shield against radiation., the operator of SONGS, the package has a contact dose rate of less than 0.1 millirem an hour, which is 500 times below the U.S. Department of Transportation limit for such shipments.The shipment is one of many that will head to the Clive disposal facility as part of a scheduled eight-year process to dismantle SONGS, which is undergoing the decommissioning process. Dismantlement efforts at the plant, which has not generated electricity since late 2012, . Get U-T Business in your inbox on Mondays Get ready for your week with the week’s top business stories from San Diego and California, in your inbox Monday mornings. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement 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 and 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 in the town of Clive,...

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robnikolewski

Rob Nikolewski

The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

A heavy chunk of the San Onofre nuclear plant is slowly moving to Utah

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