An amendment to a federal spending package, to reverse existing Energy Department policy and treat waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project in western New York state as defense-related, evidently won’t be coming up for a vote.
The Senate adjourned without considering the amendment by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Lawmakers would have only two hours to act on it after they return to the chamber at 3 p.m. Monday before voting on the full fiscal 2019 “minibus” appropriations proposal covering DOE and other federal agencies.
The Gillibrand amendment, as initially proposed Tuesday, would treat “all radioactive waste” at West Valley as “waste resulting from atomic energy defense activities.”
The New York lawmaker subsequently clarified her plan Wednesday with a second amendment to specifically reclassify waste for the purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, but not for the purposes of the 1992 Waste Isolation Pilot Plan Land Withdrawal Act.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires DOE to find a permanent disposal site for commercial and defense radioactive waste, and was amended in 1987 to limit consideration to the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. The WIPP Land Withdrawal Act of 1992 provided for creation of the underground transuranic waste disposal site in Eddy County, N.M.
“New York has sought for the waste to be classified as defense-related so that it can eventually be disposed of in a defense repository without the need for the state to pay a disposal fee for the waste, which could cost in the hundreds of millions,” the legislative source said Thursday. The source added the amendment would not mean the material could be to be sent to WIPP.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which holds the land for the West Valley site, did not comment by deadline Friday.
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 WIPP. Congress in 1980 placed DOE in charge of remediating the site.
The West Valley Demonstration Act, which called on DOE to oversee remediation at the site, was passed a couple years before the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which made DOE responsible for finding a permanent home for the nation’s spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
New York officials have argued the waste should be treated as defense-related because much of the spent fuel processed at the site 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 state agency wants the waste treated as defense-related, saying it is now orphaned with no clear path to permanent disposal. New York disagrees with the DOE position that the byproduct of reactor fuel reprocessing from 1966 to 1972 at the privately owned NFS facility is not defense-related, NYSERDA General Counsel Noah Shaw told a congressional panel last month.
Solidified low-level waste from West Valley has already been sent to the Nevada National Security Site for disposal, according to NYSERDA.
The Energy Department stance is the high-level waste at the site was generated by commercial activities, or dual commercial/defense use, and should not be treated as defense-related. There is now no permanent repository for commercial TRU waste, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said at a House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee hearing last month. “Without a national solution, you will be an interim [storage] site forever,” Shimkus said to Shaw.
The House panel held the hearing on legislation from Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) to reauthorize West Valley through 2026 and redefine its radioactive waste as specifically defense-related.
The West Valley Demonstration Project covers about 200 acres of the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center.
The Gillibrand measure was one of scores of amendments to the minibus appropriations bill in the Senate, which covers energy and water development and other programs. The Senate is expected Monday evening to vote on the measure.
The Energy Department’s Environmental Management office would get $7.2 billion in total funding for the next budget year. The office is funded at $7 billion for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The House of Representatives bill, passed June 8, includes $6.9 billion for EM.
