The Enterprise is to be decomissioned...

[WarpFactorZ]

... for real! CVN-65 (affectionately referred to as "the Big E" by its crew) will be bid a final farewell at a ceremony in Norfolk, VA:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...-farewell-uss-enterprise-decommissioning.html

 

[Tenacity]

The Enterprise was officially deactivated on December 1, 2012.

Since then the ship's nuclear fuel has been removed, a time consuming process. The ship will be towed to Washington state, the reactor itself (and other contaminated equipment) will be remove and eventual buried in eastern Washington. The ship will over time be stripped of usable weapons systems and equipment, also historical items. In about a decade the ship will be cut up for scrap metal.

As I understand it, the Navy has deemed it too expensive to convert the ship into a museum.

 

[trekfan39]

Yeah what Tenacity said, but just so you know the navy has already said that the third Ford class carrier will be named Enterprise CVN-80 and should be in service around 2025.

 

[The Old Mixer]

If it survives WWIII, it may still be in service when we meet the Vulcans.

 

[Tenacity]

^ Fortune favors little children and ships named Enterprise.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Tell that to the "D".

 

[Scotchy]

Too bad they didn't make it a museum ship. I've been on a few museum carriers (Hornet, Midway and Yorktown.) It would've been cool to tour the Enterprise.

 

[Galileo7]

Yeah what Tenacity said, but just so you know the navy has already said that the third Ford class carrier will be named Enterprise CVN-80 and should be in service around 2025.

http://www.thefordclass.com/cvn80/

 

[Cyke101]

Too bad they didn't make it a museum ship. I've been on a few museum carriers (Hornet, Midway and Yorktown.) It would've been cool to tour the Enterprise.

Time for a good ol' fashioned fan-driven letter campaign!

 

[Klargh]

Is it wrong that my first thought when I saw the name "USS Enterprise" trending was Star Trek?

 

[trekfan39]

Too bad they didn't make it a museum ship. I've been on a few museum carriers (Hornet, Midway and Yorktown.) It would've been cool to tour the Enterprise.

That was talked about but if I remember right they still had to defuel the ship and in order to do that they had to rip up the flight deck so there wouldn't have been much left of the ship.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Wasn't there also a concern about radioactivity in the areas where the reactors used to be?

 

[trekfan39]

Wasn't there also a concern about radioactivity in the areas where the reactors used to be?

I'm not sure I didn't here about that but it wouldn't surprise me the ship is fifty years old after all. I do know there was no way they would have left the reactor in place if the ship had become a museum because someone would still have to be there to watch over it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I do know there was no way they would have left the reactor in place if the ship had become a museum because someone would still have to be there to watch over it.

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[StarCruiser]

The reactor? You mean all 8 Westinghouse A2W reactors?

No, there is no practical way to do that and worse yet, by all accounts the Big E was completely worn out. She had developed a bad reputation in the last years as a rust bucket. She gave us all she could...

 

[Tenacity]

Wasn't there also a concern about radioactivity in the areas where the reactors used to be?

Anything above a certain radiation level has to treated as hazardous material, this might include things like major bulkheads. Before the ship can be sold as scrap, that all has to be removed first.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The reactor? You mean all 8 Westinghouse A2W reactors?

No, there is no practical way to do that and worse yet, by all accounts the Big E was completely worn out. She had developed a bad reputation in the last years as a rust bucket. She gave us all she could...

Sooo... she better should have been called Galactica instead?

 

[The Old Mixer]

I wonder if the crew ever got into barfights with Russians over her....

 

[Spot261]

Tell that to the "D".

They pushed their luck by having little children on board

 

[Captain Rob]

My local news radio is carrying the story of this morning's decommissioning ceremony of the USS Enterprise. From WTKR Channel 3 in Norfolk, Va.