Insufficient Decommissioning Capability and Huge Costs Make Disposal of Retired U.S. Nuclear Aircraft Carriers a Challenge

[Global Times Special Correspondent Wu Yan] The core strength of the U.S. Navy's dominance over the world's oceans lies in its 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. However, behind these seemingly formidable steel warships, there are hidden dangers that trouble the U.S. Navy. According to the website of the U.S. newspaper "Stars and Stripes" on the 3rd, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was decommissioned in 2012 and was only recently towed to a shipbreaking yard, with dismantling expected to be completed by 2030. The lengthy and labor-intensive process of decommissioning and dismantling this aircraft carrier is largely due to the complexities involved in handling such large nuclear-powered vessels.

Built in less than 4 years, dismantled in 18 years

Reports indicate that the U.S. Navy confirmed that the decommissioned USS Enterprise was towed out from Newport News, Virginia, on November 2, heading to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be finally disposed of by the Polaris Maritime Services Company.

As the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in human history, the USS Enterprise began construction on February 4, 1958, was launched on September 24, 1960, and after completing a series of sea trials, it officially joined the U.S. Navy on November 25, 1961, with the entire construction process taking less than 4 years. Subsequently, this supercarrier served for over 50 years, participating in numerous conflicts including the Vietnam War, Operation Enduring Freedom against Iraq, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The USS Enterprise had a displacement of approximately 94,000 tons, slightly smaller than the U.S. Navy's latest Ford-class carriers, and was powered by eight A2W pressurized water reactors. According to data released by the U.S. Navy, the USS Enterprise safely navigated over 1 million nautical miles during its service.

On December 1, 2012, the USS Enterprise officially ended its active deployment status at Newport News, but it was not until 2017 that it was formally removed from the U.S. Navy's vessel registry. According to a report from the U.S. Naval Institute on November 2, the U.S. Navy awarded a contract to Polaris Maritime Services Company requiring the complete dismantling of the existing hull, recovery of approximately 35,000 tons of steel, and proper disposal of low-level radioactive waste, with the entire project expected to be completed by September 2030. Based on this estimate, the entire disposal process for the aircraft carrier after decommissioning will take 18 years.

Why is dismantling the USS Enterprise difficult?

The U.S. website "Forbes" states that the lengthy dismantling process of the USS Enterprise is due to the complexity of its disposal process—being the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, its dismantling has no precedents to follow in nuclear engineering. According to U.S. law, as long as nuclear fuel remains on board, the USS Enterprise is considered an "activated nuclear device," preventing it from being formally decommissioned or undergoing substantial dismantling. Therefore, the first step is to safely remove the nuclear fuel, with just the initial removal of reactor cooling water taking six months. From 2013 to 2016, the primary task of the Newport News Shipbuilding was to remove the residual nuclear fuel from the USS Enterprise. Although the shipyard has extensive experience in refueling nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, this process differs significantly from the permanent removal of nuclear fuel, requiring specially formulated procedures. Additionally, the USS Enterprise was limited by the technology of the time, utilizing as many as eight nuclear reactors, which increased the complexity of removing the nuclear fuel.

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office states that the nuclear fuel extracted from the aircraft carrier's reactors needs to be placed in specially designed transport containers and transported by rail to the Idaho National Laboratory for further processing. This transportation and security chain alone requires significant coordination costs. Furthermore, to handle the nuclear fuel from the eight reactors, the shipyard adopted a new process using longer transport containers. The removal of the nuclear fuel alone cost approximately $902 million.

Once the nuclear fuel removal was completed, the formal dismantling of the USS Enterprise could finally be scheduled. Initially, the U.S. Navy hoped to replicate the established model for dismantling nuclear submarines by cutting the reactor compartment as a whole and transporting it away. However, the eight reactors of the USS Enterprise resulted in its compartments being too large to be lifted as a whole, necessitating direct cutting of the hull structure to access the reactors. This means that the dismantling work is "more akin to decommissioning a nuclear power plant than dismantling a ship." The U.S. Government Accountability Office also noted in its report that although the nuclear fuel had been removed, the reactor structures, having operated for decades, still contained low-level radioactivity. These wastes must be packaged according to the strict regulations of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and transported to specially licensed facilities for disposal by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Complicating matters further, the capacity of U.S. public naval shipyards capable of handling nuclear-powered vessels is severely saturated. Their dry docks and core engineering teams are prioritized for constructing new aircraft carriers and refueling active nuclear submarines, which are higher-priority tasks. According to the original schedule, the dismantling of the USS Enterprise could not begin until at least 2030, forcing the Navy to turn to commercial avenues for a solution. During this process, the associated dismantling costs skyrocketed. The U.S. Navy initially estimated the dismantling costs to be between $500 million and $750 million, which rose to over $1 billion by 2013, and by 2019, the Government Accountability Office's estimate had exceeded $1.5 billion. Ultimately, in 2023, the U.S. Navy decided to outsource all subsequent dismantling work of the USS Enterprise to a third-party company, with oversight from the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission throughout the process. During this time, the docking fees alone for waiting to be dismantled amounted to $111 million.

However, this commercial dismantling contract encountered problems. The contract awarded to Polaris Maritime Services Company by the U.S. Navy in 2025 was ordered to be suspended by the court due to bidding procedure disputes, and it was not until July of this year that the U.S. Navy finally awarded the dismantling work of the USS Enterprise to Polaris Maritime Services Company for $418.5 million.

Multiple nuclear carriers are about to be decommissioned

The "Forbes" website states that the USS Enterprise's arduous dismantling process, lasting over a decade, stems from both the lack of precedents in the disposal process and the immense challenges of rendering nuclear-powered aircraft carriers harmless, compounded by bureaucratic delays and legal disputes. The U.S. Government Accountability Office explicitly mentioned in its report that the dismantling and disposal process of this aircraft carrier will provide references and insights for future aircraft carrier decommissioning decisions. Currently, among the 11 active Nimitz-class carriers in the U.S. Navy, the earlier-built USS Nimitz and USS Eisenhower are set to be decommissioned in the coming years. Although the Nimitz-class carriers are equipped with two nuclear reactors, making dismantling somewhat easier, as these mass-produced carriers enter their peak decommissioning period, how to dispose of them and the expensive dismantling costs have become a pressing reality for the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. website "National Interest" mentions that the U.S. Navy was once keen on building high-performance nuclear-powered vessels, but the disposal issues surrounding them are now attracting increasing attention. The first U.S. nuclear-powered cruiser, the USS Long Beach, has been waiting for dismantling since its decommissioning in 1995. Meanwhile, several Los Angeles-class attack submarines and Ohio-class strategic submarines, which were mass-produced by the U.S. Navy during the peak of the Cold War, are also waiting in line for decommissioning. Even the decommissioned nuclear submarines, which have relatively mature disposal processes, are experiencing severe backlogs due to the U.S. Navy's insufficient dismantling capabilities. The U.S. Naval Institute website cites the example of the Los Angeles-class USS Key West attack submarine, which, after being preliminarily decommissioned in early 2023, had to wait 12 months to begin dismantling the nuclear reactor due to a lack of available dry docks. Reports indicate that the enormous dismantling costs of these decommissioned nuclear-powered vessels and the backlog of dismantling work are continuously draining U.S. Navy funds, squeezing industrial capacity, and becoming a systemic burden that erodes combat readiness resources.