L. Mendel Rivers was decommissioned on 10 May 2001 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day.

Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, was completed on 19 July 2002.

[1] L. Mendel Rivers' ship's plaque is on display at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Archive footage of the vessel was used in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man's Season Six opener Sharks.

USS L. Mendel Rivers is one of the playable Sturgeon-class submarines in the 2017 video game Cold Waters.