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The Ship/Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) is the process the United States Navy uses to dispose of decommissioned nuclear vessels. SRP takes place only at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton, Washington, but the preparations can begin elsewhere.
Before SRP can begin, the ship or submarine's nuclear fuel must be removed. Defueling usually coincides with decommissioning. Until the fuel is removed, the vessel is referred to as "USS Name," but afterward the "USS" is dropped and it is referred to as "ex-Name." Defueling of submarines is carried out at only five ship repair facilities on the West Coast, and the hulls are then towed to PSNS. Reusable equipment is removed at the same time as the fuel.
Spent nuclear fuel is shipped by rail to the Naval Reactor Facility in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), located 42 miles (67Â km) northwest of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where it is stored in special canisters.
At PSNS the SRP proper begins. The salvage workers cut the submarine into three or four pieces: the aft section, the reactor compartment, the missile compartment if one exists, and the forward section. Missile compartments are dismantled according to the provisions of the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty.