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 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.
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.
