I have a hope that USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) will not meet a similar fate. ENTERPRISE should be preserved as a museum, but she will need a home port that can accommodate her and she won't be cheap to keep in shape. [But, the same can be said of all museum ships.]
There is a group trying to turn USS SARATOGA (CV-60) into a museum, but they've had funding problems. I'm surprised that MA hasn't wanted the USS KENNEDY (CV-67) for Battleship Cove, given the importance of the Kennedys in that state.
Its my understanding that the CVN-65 will be torn apart to safely dispose of the nuclear reactor.
From wiki:
Newport News Shipbuilding will deactivate and de-fuel the ship, which will then be formally decommissioned once all nuclear fuel has been removed.[68] The process is scheduled to begin in mid-2013 and be completed in 2015.[14] Once the Navy dismantles and recycles the ship's reactors, there will be very little left to turn into a museum;[64] virtually everything two decks below the hangar bay would have to be cut apart.[64] What remains of Enterprise following 2015 is currently scheduled to be taken to Washington state for scrapping.
“I have a hope that USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) will not meet a similar fate. ENTERPRISE should be preserved as a museum, but she will need a home port that can accommodate her and she won’t be cheap to keep in shape. [But, the same can be said of all museum ships.]”
I predict that you won’t see the current USS ENTERPRISE, or any other CVN converted into a museum ship for the simple fact that the vessel was nuclear powered.
It’s one thing to clean up & mothball the engineering spaces on a conventional naval vessel, but quite another to do so for a nuke. You pretty much have to cut into the vessel to remove the reactors (8 of them on the Big E) and primary steam lines. By the time you do that you’ve got a real expensive mess on your hands to put things back.
One also wonders about trace nuclear contamination on the vessel.
Consider that the only piece of the first nuclear submarine USS NAUTILUS that survives is the sail/conning tower. The rest is razor blades.
USS Enterprise will be scrapped...and I agree, I think it is a sad shame. First nuclear powered carrier. Longest serving US carrier in history. She should be saved. But they have already started dismantling her.
The Saratoga foundation has given it up. Condition of the ship was too bad and the Navy removed her from the donation list. Those folks went in full with the USS JFK museum effort, joining force with them and giving that group all of their money.