CLEANING UP THE COLD WAR MESSREACTOR DECOMMISSIONING - A GROWING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

摘要

With the fear that Hitler's Germany might invent the world’s first atomic bomb, the U.S. beganrnthe top secret “Manhattan Project” in 1942. In less than three years the U.S. was successful inrnbuilding both a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb. During that time, the U.S. Army Corps ofrnEngineers managed the construction of monumental plants to enrich uranium, productionrnreactors to make plutonium and reprocessing plants to extract plutonium from the reactor fuel.rnHowever, following World War II, relations between the U.S. and Russia were strained and withrnas impending threat from the Soviets, the now infamous “Cold War” began. Over the next fiverndecades the U.S. spent an estimated $300 billion manufacturing nuclear weapons until 1991rnwhen the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union brought an abrupt end to the nuclear arms race andrnthe Cold War. Because the end of the Cold War was so sudden, many of the facilities were notrnclosed properly and still pose environmental and health risks. Now, the Corps is assisting thernDepartment of Energy, the Army and NASA in decommissioning nuclear reactors that were usedrnfor research on and production of nuclear weapons during the Cold War.