The USS Enterprise Is Being Shut Down

It's the beginning of the end for the USS Enterprise. After 50 years of service, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is going dark at the same shipyard where it was first built.

Around 600 sailors and 1,200 employees at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia have been tasked with completing the "inactivation." As the Daily Press newspaper reports:

The Navy has never permanently shut down a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. A big part of the job — removing spent fuel from the ship's nuclear reactors — is nothing new. Newport News has accomplished several mid-life carrier overhauls, which involve defueling followed by refueling. That's part of getting the ship back in the fight, as the Navy likes to put it.

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