US Navy taking apart world's first nuclear-powered aircraft after 50 years of service Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726890/US-Navy-taking-apart-worlds-nuclear-powered-aircraft-50-years-service.html#ixzz

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.The USS Enterprise, a Navy ship stationed in Virginia, is slowly being taken apart. 

According to The Daily Press, the ship's 'inactivation' is being handled in Newport News. 

The ship 'will be dismantled and recycled' at Washington state's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility after two more years in Virginia, the newspaper said. 

The Enterprise was active between 1962 and 2012 - and is 'the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,' The Press said. 

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Farewell: The USS Enterprise is undergoing an 'inactivation'

Rear Adm. Thomas Moore told the newspaper 'Serving on Enterprise was almost a badge of honor among those who were nuclear trained. If you didn't serve on Enterprise, you really haven't lived.'

As part of the process, 'a complex in the lower decks [will have to be built] to allow for the eight reactors to be defueled,' The Press said.

Program director Dave Long told the newspaper 'We've got probably half the ship or more that is uninhabited. It's dark - no electricity, no ventilation. And we've actually sectioned it off with certain barriers and locks, very safely, so people can't get lost.'

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Seen in 1969, the Enterprise was active between 1962 and 2012

A ninth USS Enterprise will eventually be built and may include parts of the eighth ship being disassembled, the newspaper said. 

Speaking about the Enterprise's 'inactivation,' Capt. William C. Hamilton Jr. told The Press 'This is something nobody wants to do, but it has to be done. So let's have people who love the ship do it. That's the dignity of it. 

'We go about our business because we have other things to do, but you can't have your dessert until you eat your peas. That's kind of the same thing here.'

Read more:

• The long goodbye: World's first nuclear aircraft carrier going dark

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726890/US-Navy-taking-apart-worlds-nuclear-powered-aircraft-50-years-service.html#ixzz3AnyshkAO
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