[6] The MH-1A simulator was obtained by Memphis State University Center for Nuclear Studies in the early 1980s, but was never restored or returned to operational service.

The Sturgis remained at the pier for another 11 months, supplying power to Fort Belvoir, while the Corps of Engineers sought a suitable permanent site.

In spring 1968, the US State Department entered into negotiations with the Panama Canal Company, and the Sturgis was towed out of Gunston Cove in late July 1968, arriving Gatun Lake on 7 August.

Additionally, the Andrew J. Weber, a diesel-fueled power barge of 20 MW capacity, was deployed to the Canal Zone in November 1968.

After one year of operations in the Canal Zone, the MH-1A reactor had to be refueled, a process which took one week (17–25 October 1969), according to a 1969 Corps of Engineers report.

[15] The MH-1A plant was retired from service in 1976 since the Army Reactor Program had been discontinued, and, as a unique prototype, operation cost for the unit was high.

Between December 1976 and January 1977, the power barge was towed back to the United States, sustaining storm-related damage so severe that it had to divert to the Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point, North Carolina, and undergo temporary structural repairs.

Fuel was removed from the reactor at Fort Belvoir and shipped to the Savannah River Site, and the plant was put into SAFSTOR (safe storage), with decontamination and physical barriers to prevent release of radioactivity.

[19] On March 27, 2014, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $34,663,325.34 contract to Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I) for the decommissioning, dismantling and disposal of the MH-1A nuclear reactor installed on the Sturgis barge.

After that the remaining portions of the barge would be transported to Brownsville, Texas, for disposal or recycling as scrap, using standard ship-breaking methods.