The House of Representatives passed in a voice vote Monday a bill to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July.
The amended version of the bill would hike the site’s funding to $75 million annually starting immediately through fiscal 2028 and instruct the Government Accountability Office to prepare a report on radioactive waste at the site. The Congressional Budget Office said in August the measure would cost the federal government $345 million from fiscal 2019 through 2023.
The recently signed appropriations package covering the Energy Department funded West Valley cleanup at $75 million, the same amount as in fiscal 2018 but over $14 million more than requested by the Trump administration.
At the committee level, Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) deleted a provision from the original bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) to designate radioactive waste at the site as defense-related. New York officials say there is about 34,000 cubic feet of waste now stranded at West Valley with similar traits to defense-related transuranic waste emplaced at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Tranusranic waste sent to WIPP from other DOE facilities encompasses soil, debris, clothes, tools, and other material that have low levels of contamination by plutonium or other radioactive elements.
Occupying about 200 acres of the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center, the site was home to a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant from 1966 to 1972. Because the privately operated firm Nuclear Fuel Services did the reprocessing work, the Energy Department does not consider the waste to be defense-related.
The GAO report, due within 18 months, would analyze types of wastes at West Valley and potential disposal paths.
Congress passed the West Valley Demonstration Act in 1980, which placed DOE in charge of site remediation and put 90 percent of the funding burden on the federal agency, with the state paying the rest. The Energy Department began cleanup in 1988.
West Valley cleanup contractor CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley this month completed demolition of the site’s vitrification plant, which between 1999 and 2002 solidified 600,000 gallons of liquid waste at the site. Demolition of the 10,000-square-foot building began in September.
The Energy Department called tearing down and removing the 50-foot-tall building the most demanding West Valley project to date. Crews used heavy equipment to tear down the facility in phases.
The first phase of decommissioning at West Valley, which includes tear-down and off-site disposal of most above-ground structures, is expected to be done by 2030. State and federal agencies are conducting environmental planning for decommissioning those facilities that remain after 2030. A specific timeline for completion will result from this review.
“Many years are still ahead of us, and this legislation will give us clarity,” Reed said Tuesday on the House floor.
While the West Valley Demonstration Act placed DOE in charge of cleanup, it essentially left the state responsible for the waste.
The reauthorization act would seek an updated cost estimate for West Valley waste disposal. In its latest budget plan, DOE listed the environmental management program life cycle for West Valley cost range from nearly $1.9 billion to just over $2 billion.
New York state is pleased the House passed the reauthorization act and “looks forward to working with the Government Accountability Office with respect to the origin of and disposal options for the West Valley waste,” said NYSERDA spokeswoman Claudette Thornton.
The measure must still be approved by the Senate, which received the legislation on Wednesday. The bill has little wiggle room for passage in the current Congress, which ends on Jan. 3, 2019. The Senate will be in recess for much of that time ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections and then the holiday season.
