Remaining cleanup costs at the West Valley Demonstration Project site in New York could run anywhere from $1.4 billion to $10.6 billion depending on how much contamination is dug up and shipped off-site, the Government Accountability Office said in its report last week on waste disposal at the site.
As of February 2020, the Department of Energy has spent a total of $3.1 billion on the one-time site of a Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessing plant that ceased operation in 1972, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported last week.
The cost range was calculated by GAO largely by studying DOE’s final environmental impact statement for decommissioning the 200-acre property now owned by New York state.
A more definitive estimate won’t be available until DOE and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority make decisions for phase 2 of the decommissioning, especially how to handle areas with residual contamination. This includes a Waste Tank Farm used to store liquid high-level waste resulting from commercial reprocessing as well as a below-grade landfill licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
A key decision remaining is whether the agencies go with exhumation and “site-wide removal” of the below-ground waste, or stick with less expensive remediation options, according to the GAO report.
Phase 1A of the project, which involves demolishing above-ground structures is winding down, but Phase 1B, which centers on removal of contaminated soil, has yet to start. Although the federal agency was to complete Phase 1 cleanup by the end of 2020, DOE this phase will not be completed until 2030 or later, GAO said in the report.
The DOE’s current estimate for project completion is 2043.
