Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) proposed an amendment to a federal spending package this week to reverse existing Energy Department policy and treat waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state as defense-related.
The Gillibrand amendment, proposed Tuesday and yet to be voted upon, would treat radioactive waste at the site, as “waste resulting from atomic energy defense activities.”
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and New York legislators, favor such a change in hopes of eventually disposing of the material elsewhere.
The New York site was once home to a commercial spent fuel reprocessing plant operated by Nuclear Fuel Services. Because it was not a government plant, West Valley is not considered part of the Cold War weapons program, although much of its waste is similar to transuranic waste sent to the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Congress in 1980 placed DOE in charge of remediating the site.
New York officials have argued the waste should be treated as defense-related because much of the processed fuel came from Manhattan Project and Cold War sites such as Hanford in Washington state. There are currently 278 canisters of solidified high-level material being held on a pad for interim storage at West Valley.
The Energy Department stance is the waste at the site was generated as a result of commercial activities, and not eligible for WIPP disposal. There is now no permanent repository for a commercial version of TRU waste although Nevada’s Yucca Mountain provide one, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said at a House of Representatives hearing last month. WIPP takes only TRU waste.
The Gillibrand measure is one of more than 80 amendments to the so-called “minibus” appropriations bill in the Senate, which covers energy and water development programs. The Senate continues to debate the package, and the amendments to it.
