Transportation of shippingport reactor pressure vessel

The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in western Pennsylvania is the first nuclear electric generating station to be decommissioned with the goal of restoring the site to a radiologically clean condition acceptable for unrestricted use. In February, 1989, the 921 ton (836 metric tons) reactor pressure vessel/neutron-shield tank assembly was hauled from a storage area on the plant site to a barge slip; loaded onto an oceangoing barge; shipped from Pennsylvania to Hanford, Washington; and hauled overland to a burial site on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Reservation. This paper reviews the engineering requirements for the land and marine transportation operations. Engineering criteria for the hauling equipment and marine vessels, testing requirements, and operational methodology employed during the multimodal transportation are examined. Recommendations are made for future work of this nature performed as a part of nuclear plant maintenance and decommissioning projects, with particular emphasis placed on hauling-equipment performance requirements.