The sturgis barge will be decommissioned under a contract awarded to CB&I by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The barge carried the MH-IA reactor that was used during the late 1960s and early 1970s to deliver electricity in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a U.S. possession. The reactor was deactivated/defueled in 1978, and the barge has been moored at the James River National Defense Reserve Fleet near Fort Eustis, Va., since then. The barge will be transferred to Galveston, Texas, where decommissioning and dismantlement will take place. Once the residual radioactive waste materials are removed, the barge will be transported to Brownsville, Texas, for disposal or recycling as scrap using standard ship-breaking methods. The entire process is expected to be completed in about four years. The contract is valued at nearly $35 million.
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