Decommissioning
On 2 September 1958, Worcester departed Long Beach and steamed for the Mare Island Naval Shipyard to commence the inactivation process. Decommissioned at Mare Island on 19 December 1958 and simultaneously placed in reserve, Worcester was subsequently berthed at San Francisco and. later, at Bremerton, Washington, before she was struck from the Navy list on 1 December 1970. Sold to Zidell Explorations, Inc., of Portland, Oregon, on 5 July 1972, the revolutionary light cruiser that never had a chance to prove herself in her designed role was subsequently broken up for scrap.
Approximately 200 tons of her armor plate was sent to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, west of Chicago, and the armor is being used for absorption shielding in the particle accelerator and experiment lines.
Read more about this topic: USS Worcester (CL-144)