NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Years after it was decommissioned, the U.S. Navy has announced the final fate of the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
The former USS Enterprise (CVN 65) will be dismantled and disposed of using commercial industry at one of three possible locations: Newport News, Virginia; Brownsville, Texas; or Mobile, Alabama.
The Navy said the commercial companies would be responsible for dismantling the ship's defueled reactor plants and disposing of the reactor plant components through several hundred shipments to authorized waste disposal sites.
This plan was one of three the Navy considered and is called "Alternative 3". The other two alternatives would have sent the Enterprise to be dismantled at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.
"This decision will allow the Navy to reduce the Navy inactive ship inventory, eliminate costs associated with maintaining the ship in a safe stowage condition, and dispose of legacy radiological and hazardous wastes in an environmentally responsible manner, while meeting the operational needs of the Navy," the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility said in a news release.
Affectionately called the "Big E," the former Enterprise was retired in 2012 after more than 50 years of service. In addition to being the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, it also played a role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
It was officially decommissioned in 2017 and it currently sits at a pier at Newport News Shipbuilding.
CVN 65 is the eighth ship to bear the name Enterprise. Its name will live on in a next-generation Gerald R. Ford-class carrier currently under construction, also at Newport News Shipbuilding.