The Saxton Nuclear Experimental Corporation (SNEC) Facility, a 23.5 MWt reactor, operatedfrom 1962 to 1972. From 1972 to 1974 it was partially decontaminated and placed in a storage condition. By themid-1980's a decision was made to complete the decontamination and demolition of Saxton support structures.Appropriate structural maintenance of these support structures during the shutdown period could have extendedtheir life. This lesson learned has direct applicability to owners of other shutdown facilities. The SNEC supportfacility decontamination project occurred during 1987 to 1989. NRC regulatory practice at that time was toperform a 100% confirmatory survey following submittal of the licensee's final survey report. This process tookseveral years and building demolition took place in 1992. Since that time NRC rules and practices have changedsuch that decommissioning activities can be accomplished more efficiently. In 1995 the owners made a decisionto complete the decommissioning of the remainder of the facility which included the steel containment vessel(CV) which housed the nuclear system components. A site characterization plan was developed and performedbased on the remaining nuclear related structures. In 1998, based on published guidance from the NRC, aHistorical Site Assessment (HAS) was performed which indicated that the adjacent coal-fired facility, which hadbeen demolished in 1975, had also been impacted by SNEC Facility operations. Surveys taken in this areadiscovered radiological contamination above site release limits. This discovery added considerable scope andcost to the project. The key lesson is to perform an HAS in order to more accurately define project scope beforehand. The SNEC Facility decommissioning project was a milestone in the current United Statesdecommissioning process and these and other lessons learned from SNEC have direct applicability to otherfacilities.
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