A bill to reauthorize the Energy Department’s continued nuclear cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state drew scant attention Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources energy subcommittee.
The measure was one of 11 bills for consideration and testimony at the one-hour morning legislative hearing.
Subcommittee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) mentioned the West Valley Reauthorization Act, H.R. 1138. But it was otherwise ignored as the panel focused primarily on five bills addressing electricity storage.
“Almost all of them are bipartisan,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said of the bills before the subcommittee. Heinrich’s office did not immediately respond to a question on whether he supports West Valley reauthorization.
The bill from Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) passed the full House of Representatives by voice vote on March 5. It would amend the West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980, which calls upon the Energy Department to solidify high-level waste and decommission facilities at the site.
It would reauthorize West Valley funding at $75 million per year through fiscal 2026, an amount equal to the enacted funding for fiscal 2019 and the fiscal 2020 figure sought by the White House and the House of Representatives. The old authorization language was $5 million per year.
Charles Davis III, town supervisor in Ashford, N.Y., where West Valley is based, said by telephone Friday the reauthorization should strengthen the project’s hand in ensuring sufficient funding in the future.
If passed, the legislation would also direct the Government Accountability Office to report within 18 months on radioactive waste at West Valley, including types of waste, disposal options, and disposal costs.
The reauthorization bill has passed the House two years in a row. Last year, however, the congressional session ended before it was considered by a Senate committee.
Owned by New York state, West Valley site occupies about 200 acres of the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center. The demonstration project was home to a commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant from 1966 to 1972.
CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley has a $542 million DOE contract that runs from 2011 through early March 2020. The vendor manages Phase 1 decommissioning at the former nuclear fuel reprocessing site, including tearing down old structures and removing contaminated equipment and waste.
In October 2018, the Energy Department issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for the next stage of West Valley work. But it has yet to issue a draft solicitation.
