Instead, a handful of people stood atop a bluff a couple hundreds yards away with video cameras. From Benton, the reactor vessel was to be towed about 30 miles, partially on public highway, to its burial site at the federal Hanford Nuclear Reservation. It was mounted on a 16-axle trailer with 320 wheels to support its enormous weight. PGE already had shipped Trojan's contaminated steam generators upriver to Hanford since 1995, and the Navy often ships reactors from submarines and cruisers up the Columbia for burial at the site. Although it no longer contains its uranium fuel, the Trojan reactor vessel contains 15 times as much radioactivity as those objects, according to state officials.
Workers handling it wear no more protection than a hard hat.
The Trojan plant operated for 16 years, generating enough electricity to supply all of Portland. It was shut down in 1993, two decades earlier than planned, after a series of problems including a faulty safety system that drew federal fines, an accidental release of radioactive gases and cracked steam tubes. Nearly 800 spent but highly radioactive uranium fuel rod assemblies removed from the reactor over the years remain in storage at the Trojan site. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.