The Naval Nuclear Laboratory says that its Naval Reactors Facility (NRF), located within the Idaho National Laboratory, held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Naval Spent Fuel Handling Facility.

The NRF will receive, examine, prepare, and package naval spent nuclear fuel. Building a new facility will improve long-term capacity, increase efficiency and effectiveness, and reduce long-term costs, the laboratory says in a statement.

The estimated cost of the Spent Fuel Handling Recapitalization Project is approximately $1.65 billion. Included in the cost is more than $500 million for facility construction. Site preparation is expected to begin in 2017, facility construction is expected to begin in 2019. Facility operations are expected to commence in 2024.

Jacobs Field Services North America, Inc. was selected to manage the design and construction of the new facility.

The Naval Nuclear Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by Bechtel Marine

Propulsion Corporation (BMPC), a unit of Bechtel National, Inc. Naval Nuclear Laboratory personnel are BMPC employees who work at four DOE facilities: Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Kenneth A. Kesselring Site, and Naval Reactors Facility, and at the Department of Defense-owned Nuclear Power Training Unit-Charleston. BMPC employees also work at numerous shipyard and vendor locations.

For 70 years, the Naval Nuclear Laboratory has developed advanced naval nuclear propulsion technology, provided technical support, and trained nuclear operators. The Naval Nuclear Laboratory is solely dedicated to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program.