Few names in naval history are as heavy with significance as Enterprise. The U.S. Navy has reserved this one for nearly a century for some of its most sophisticated and potent aircraft carriers—each of them setting new standards in naval technology and seapower strategy. From the mythical World War II Yorktown-class USS Enterprise (CV-6), to the trailblazing CVN-65 nuclear-powered carrier, to the digitally crafted CVN-80, Enterprise’s history is one of continuous innovation and drive.
With the commissioning of USS Enterprise (CVN-65) into service in 1961, she revolutionized the rules. The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world, she was a Cold War engineering wonder and an American capability statement.
Measuring over 1,100 feet in length and having a crew of about 4,600, she was not merely a warship but a city on the water, propelled by eight nuclear reactors. This highly uncommon layout was the result of the progressive optimism of the time and made her unlike any other ship on the water.
But revolutionary technology is usually accompanied by unseen complications. The very same qualities that rendered Enterprise legendary—her nuclear power and gigantic size—also make her retirement exceptionally complicated.
Traditional carriers are easily scrapped or scuttled as targets, but nuclear carriers call for a much more careful dismantling. With eight reactors and decades of radiological history, CVN-65 necessitates a special and highly regulated dismantling process.
The Navy’s normal practice of decommissioning nuclear ships, honed with submarines and cruisers, is defueling and extracting the reactor compartments for disposal. Carriers are much larger and occupy precious dock space for active fleet upkeep. With Enterprise, her eight smaller reactors—compared to the two larger ones employed on subsequent Nimitz-class carriers—pose yet another complication.
After years of research and public comment, the Navy did something unusual: It turned to the private sector to take care of the dismantling. The move takes advantage of the private industry’s history of decommissioning civilian nuclear power reactors. The eight defueled reactors would be sectioned, packaged securely, and transported to licensed sites for disposal as low-level radioactive waste. Nonradioactive material would be recycled or disposed of as required by law.
This strategy will save time, money, and dock space at the shipyards. Industry estimates put the process at five years and a cost of between $554 and $696 million (2019 dollars), a fraction of what it would cost and take if the work remained in public shipyards.
While inflation will drive those figures higher, the savings and available dock space will allow the Navy to concentrate on having its active force mission-capable. The experience gathered will also inform the eventual retirement of other carriers such as USS Nimitz and USS Eisenhower.
Meanwhile, the Enterprise name will not soon fade into history. At Newport News Shipbuilding, construction of the next-generation Ford-class carrier, CVN-80, is already underway. She will be the first carrier designed and constructed entirely with digital technology—tablets and 3D models instead of paper plans—abbreviating construction and establishing a new benchmark for naval shipbuilding.
The history of the USS Enterprise is more than a chronology of technological advances. It’s about living with new realities, overcoming uncharted challenges, and staying in sync with the needs of a contemporary fleet. As the Navy innovates new means of nuclear carrier retirement and adopts digital transformation in ship construction, the experience of the last century will inform how the next Enterprise sets sail for the future—prepared to build on the tradition.
