For the second year in a row, the House of Representatives has approved legislation to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and passed by voice vote March 5, is identical to the measure passed in September before Democrats retook control of the House
The bill authorizes $75 million in annual funding for Department of Energy cleanup at West Valley, well above the $5 million annually in the current authorization language, which has not been updated in years. The project was funded at $75 million in fiscal 2019.
The legislation also instructs the Government Accountability Office to issue a report within 18 months of enactment clarifying the origins of and disposal pathways for the Western New York Service Center’s nuclear fuel waste.
The passage of H.R. 1138 drew praise from the top Democrats and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its environment and climate change subcommittee. Both sides issued statements stressing the importance of protecting the public from radioactive and hazardous wastes.
“Our government’s first responsibility is to protect the health and safety of its citizens, which is precisely why we take hazardous waste cleanup and disposal seriously,” said committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) in a prepared statement.
On March 6, the measure was received in the Senate, read twice, and referred to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
West Valley was once the site of a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. For decades, the Energy Department has said waste at the site is not defense-related because West Valley was not used for government nuclear weapons activities. But New York state counters that much of the material reprocessed by Nuclear Fuel Services between 1966 and 1972 came from nuclear weapons operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Material at West Valley, which is akin to transuranic wastem is not currently eligible for shipment to the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico because it is not considered defense-related.
New York believes 60 percent of the material sent to West Valley was from defense facilities, and 80 percent of the reprocessed plutonium shipped out of West Valley was sent to defense facilities, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) said March 5 on the floor of the House. “This classification disagreement has major consequences for how the waste can be disposed of and who will be responsible for covering the cost,” he added. While the legislation will not resolve this dispute, it is an important first step, he added.
A local elected official near West Valley agreed. “We need that GAO report as soon as possible,” Charles Davis, town supervisor for Ashford, N.Y., said by telephone Thursday.
The West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 made DOE responsible for remediation of the facility but did not require the agency to oversee long-term disposal of the nuclear waste.
More than 6.5 miles of pipe and 50 tons of vessels and equipment have been removed from the most hazardous areas of the former reprocessing plant, according to DOE. About 51 surplus facilities have been removed from the site.
There are 278 casks of vitrified high-level radioactive waste now on an interim storage pad at West Valley and awaiting construction of a federal repository for disposal. The reprocessing waste was vitrified into a glass-like substance between 1996 and 2002.
“Right now, that stuff does not have a pathway out of here,” Davis said.
The town supervisor was happy Reed’s bill passed the House this early in the congressional session. Davis said he confident New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, will push hard for approval of the measure in the Senate.
