Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, bordering Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The naval yard lies along the southern boundary of Maine on the Piscataqua River.
This article is about the U.S. naval shipyard near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For the U.S. naval shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, see Norfolk Naval Shipyard. For the Royal Navy base in Hampshire, England, see HMNB Portsmouth.Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Shipyard
No
1800
1800–Present
Seavey Island, Kittery, Maine
54 acres (22 ha)
Colonial Revival, Greek Revival
November 17, 1977
Capt. Michael Oberdorf (February 22 -present)
Founded on June 12, 1800, PNS is U.S. Navy's oldest continuously operating shipyard. Today, most of its work concerns the overhaul, repair, and modernization of submarines.[2]
As of November 2021, the shipyard employed more than 6,500 federal employees.[3] As well, some of the work is performed by private corporations (e.g., Delphinius Engineering of Eddystone, Pennsylvania; Oceaneering International of Chesapeake, Virginia; Orbis Sibro of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; and Q.E.D. Systems Inc. of Virginia Beach, Virginia).[4]
Superfund site[edit]
In 1994, the shipyard was placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Priorities List (NPL) for environmental investigations/restorations under CERCLA (Superfund) after an investigation found groundwater, soil and sediment contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), metals and benzene. In 2024, the EPA removed the shipyard from the National Priorities List of contaminated Superfund. The removal followed 30 years of extensive remediation at the 278-acre shipyard, including the removal of contaminated soil, sediment and other hazardous materials.[23]
Safety concerns[edit]
A CDC / NIOSH study released in 2005 examined the cases of 115 employees at the shipyard who had died of leukemia between 1952 and 1992. The results suggested that leukemia mortality risk increased with increasing cumulative occupational ionizing radiation dose among PNS workers.[26]