Below are articles and other news published since the last West Valley Citizen Task Force Meeting. They relate to the West Valley Demonstration Project, nuclear waste cleanup or are otherwise relevant or of potential interest to stakeholders interested in the Project. After each Citizen Task Force Meeting, these articles are compiled into a single document and may be found with the meeting materials for that month.
November 10, 2022 — Olean Times Herald
WEST VALLEY — Deconstruction of the Solvent Storage Terrace at the West Valley Demonstration Project was recently completed as part of the ongoing deconstruction of the Main Plant Process Building.
The storage terrace is a concrete block structure located on the 3rd floor of the Main Plant Process Building. The area formerly held storage tanks associated with the final purification of the uranium and plutonium products.
Read the full article here.
November 3, 2022 — Salamanca Press
WEST VALLEY — A train with 12 containers of the first demolition debris from the Main Plant
Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in Ashford has been shipped off the site
by rail. Read the full article here.
November 3, 2022 — Clean Times Herald
WEST VALLEY — The Department of Energy cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project was recently recognized at a Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.
Safety and Site Programs Leader Jennifer Dundas presented the award to CHBWV at the Safety Day.
“At the West Valley Demonstration Project, safety is not just remembered, but put into practice every day and in everything we do,” Dundas said. “This safety accomplishment only happens because of the skills and commitment of our employees to complete work in a safe and compliant manner. Performing work safely brings many benefits to the ongoing cleanup and future closure of this site.”
Read the full article here.
November 1, 2022 — EM Update
WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM crews at the West Valley Demonstration Project have marked progress in the demolition of the Main Plant Process Building by successfully deconstructing a concrete block structure on the facility’s third floor.
Called the Solvent Storage Terrace, the concrete block structure formally held storage tanks associated with the final purification of uranium and plutonium product. From 1966 to 1972, the Main Plant operated as a commercial reprocessing facility to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. Read the full article here.
October 27, 2022 — Power
The Department of Energy (DOE) has ramped up efforts to explore recycling spent nuclear fuel (SNF), or used nuclear fuel (UNF), from the nation’s fleet of light water reactors (LWRs), doling out $38 million in federal awards to a dozen projects on Oct. 21.
Teams will receive funding under the DOE’s March 2022–launched “Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy” (CURIE) program to work on projects that will advance recycling of SNF. The projects will seek to r educe the volume of high‐levelwaste (HLW) that will require permanent disposal, but they will also potentially provide feedstock that could be used in domestic advanced reactors, the DOE said.
Read the full article here.
