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  • August

    Aerial view of the former SM-1 nuclear power plant on Fort Belvoir in the 1960s. The facility provided limited power to Fort Belvoir and served as a training facility before being deactivated in 1973. SM-1 was partially decommissioned from 1973 into 1974, which consisted of the removal of the majority of the site’s radioactivity. This included the removal of nuclear fuel and control rods, minor decontamination, shipment of radioactive waste, sealing of the reactor pressure vessel, and installing appropriate warning signs and monitoring devices. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract August 27, 2020 for the final decommissioning, dismantling and disposal of the facility.

    Army Corps to decommission and dismantle historic, deactivated nuclear power plant at Fort Belvoir

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, has awarded a $67.98 million contract to joint venture APTIM AECOM Decommissioning LLC, of Alexandria for the decommissioning, dismantling and disposal of the deactivated SM-1 nuclear power plant — the Army’s first nuclear reactor and first facility in America to provide nuclear-generated power for a sustained period to the commercial grid.

  • September

    Retired Lt. Gen. Ernest Graves, a pioneer in the history of the military’s use of nuclear power for various purposes, discusses his past involvement with the construction and initial operation of the SM-1 nuclear reactor and plant at Fort Belvoir in the 1950s with Brian Hearty, the national program manager at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters, for the Army’s Deactivated Nuclear Power Plant Program, during a meeting at the US Army Nuclear and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Agency headquarters on Fort Belvoir, Tuesday September 19, 2017. In addition to providing nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction expertise, USANCA is home to the Army Reactor Office, which issues the permits for the Army’s one operating and three deactivated nuclear reactors. Hearty is part of a team gathering as much information as possible about the SM-1 reactor as part of the planning process for its ultimate decommissioning and dismantling. Meeting with Graves is just one of many efforts towards planning SM-1’s decommissioning.

    Pioneer in military use of nuclear power provides insight on facility to be decommissioned

    Retired Lt. Gen. Ernest Graves was just a major when he was assigned to the SM-1, the first-of-its-kind nuclear power plant that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was building on Fort Belvoir in the late 1950s. At the time, Major Graves was tasked with overseeing the final stages of construction, then operating and training the staff for the reactor. The SM-1 was the first nuclear reactor in the country to generate power connected to the commercial grid when it achieved its first criticality in April 1957. Sixty years later, a 93-year-old Graves and his wife, Nancy, visited the facility to discuss its history with professionals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other Department of Defense agencies charged with handling nuclear-related missions for the military.

  • April

    Project Engineer Nhat Tran, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, inspects the nearly finished renovation work inside Building 1417, April 6, 2017, as contractors look over blueprints away from the finishing up of the construction activities. Building 1417 is used by the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power) for maintenance on generators and vehicles as well as storage and other activities.

    Prime Power getting HQ facilities upgrade at Fort Belvoir

    Most times, when an active duty U.S. Army unit is deployed it’s not to American cities, but for the
  • Project Engineer Nhat Tran, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, inspects the nearly finished renovation work inside Building 1417, April 6, 2017, as contractors look over blueprints away from the finishing up of the construction activities. Building 1417 is used by the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power) for maintenance on generators and vehicles as well as storage and other activities.

    Prime Power getting HQ facilities upgrade at Fort Belvoir

    Most times, when an active duty U.S. Army unit is deployed it’s not to American cities, but for the

  • May

    The Norfolk District's Fort Belvoir Community Hospital Project Delivery Team receives the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' PDT of the year award for 2013. The team overcame tremendous hurdles as they oversaw construction of a more than $1 billion hospital during the Base Realignment and Closure 2005 process. (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Bloodgood)

    District team recognized as USACE 2013 PDT of the year

    The task: build a state-of-the-art, world-class medical facility in five years. The result: the $1 billion Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, a model of modern military medical facilities that now stands where a golf course once existed on post.

  • March

    NGA Campus East project honored at annual conference

    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Campus East project at Fort Belvoir, Va., was awarded the Marvin M. Black Excellence in Partnering Award and the Alliant Build America Award for Building Construction–New at the Associated General Contractors of America’s (AGC) 93rd Annual Convention March 15, 2012.