AIKEN - There's only one way to safely move an 820-ton radioactive nuclear reactor pressure vessel: very slowly, officials say.
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A reactor from Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Co. taken to Savannah River Site by barge up the Savannah River was being off-loaded Monday and placed on a doublewide platform trailer 132 feet long and 21 feet wide.
The mammoth vessel, encased in steel and concrete to ensure safety, is supposed to inch its way 22 miles across the federal nuclear site to its final resting place at Chem Nuclear Services LLC's nuclear waste dump at a speed of about 1 mph.
"You're just doing things very methodically and prudently," said Deborah Ogilvie, a spokeswoman for Chem Nuclear, which sits less than a mile east of SRS's Barnwell gates.
The trailer carrying the reactor has 16 axles and 256 tires, according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
As the load snakes across the site, officials will erect reinforced bridges next to existing ones at two locations to allow passage, said Kelley Smith, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Yankee.
Once outside SRS's gates, the reactor will travel another 3/4 -mile to Chem Nuclear along South Carolina Highway 64, accompanied by an SCDOT engineer and a safety official from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
The reactor will travel half of the home stretch atop the state highway before turning onto Chem Nuclear property and a dirt road. To make the turn, officials have to fill in a culvert with rocks and cover it with a steel plate, an SCDOT official said.
The radioactive reactor will be exposed to the public for about 45 minutes before making it to Chem Nuclear, said Mechelle Mabry, a DOT permit director. Officials emphasized that the vessel wasn't a threat to the environment or to people. Standing next to it for several hours would give a person a radiation dose equivalent to a chest X-ray.
Still, the vessel has been under around-the-clock surveillance at SRS since it arrived Saturday and will have a police escort from SRS to Chem Nuclear.
Chem Nuclear already has buried four nuclear reactor pressure vessels, which made their way to Barnwell either by barge or by train. The site is one of only two in the country that receives low-level radioactive reactors.
Despite the potential for harm, Barnwell County officials are supporters of the Chem Nuclear site, county Administrator Pickens Williams Jr. said. The county council will vote on a resolution to support its relicensing at its Jan. 6 meeting.
"I feel like the site's safe," Mr. Williams said. "There's no concern over moving the truck through the county."
Reach Josh Gelinas at (803) 279-6895 or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.
