The House of Representatives passed in voice vote Tuesday a bill to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s 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 immediately hike cleanup funding to $75 million annually 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 bill would cost the federal government $345 million from fiscal 2019 through 2023.
The recently enacted fiscal 2019 appropriations package for the Energy Department funded West Valley at $75 million, which was the same as the current budget but $14 million above the Trump administration request.
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 disposed of at the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
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 as 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 and the Energy Department began cleanup in 1988. 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 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 currently conducting environmental planning for decommissioning those facilities that remain after 2030.
“Many years are still ahead of us, and this legislation will give us clarity,” Reed said on the House floor.
