August 28, 2022 – It is easy to forget that scenic Cattaraugus County destinations such as Zoar Valley, Ashford Hollow and Ellicottville are also located within 25 miles of the only privately owned nuclear fuel reprocessing center to have ever operated in the U.S.

Nuclear Fuel Services ran its plant in the town of Ashford from 1963 to 1972. After the reprocessing operations, no longer profitable, ceased, the company’s lease expired in 1980. Ashford – and anywhere else the toxic material could travel – was left with 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level nuclear waste. Link to editorial

August 27, 2022 – State Republican Chairman Nicholas Langworthy just completed a sprint in his GOP primary win over Carl Paladino in the new 23rd Congressional District.

He’s ready to begin the general election against Democrat Max Della Pia, the Tioga County Democratic chairman and expects to debate him — unlike Paladino’s refusal to debate Langworthy in the primary. “I think I have satisfied a lot of minds in the primary.” Link to article

August 25, 2022 – The Department of Energy and its prime contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley completed the deactivation of the Product Purification Cell‐South, which contained very high levels of contamination from former nuclear fuel reprocessing operations. This effort has contributed to an overall reduction in radiological hazards that will support the demolition of the Main Plant Process Building, an DOE CY2022 Priority. Link to article

August 25, 2022 – The Department of Energy and West Valley Demonstration Project recently completed the deactivation of the Product Purification Cell-South (PPC-S),which contained high levels of contamination from former nuclear fuel reprocessing operations.

This effort has contributed to an overall reduction in radiological hazards that will support the demolition of the Main Plant Process Building, a DOE priority for 2022.

The PPC-S measures 5-by-16-by-57 feet and during nuclear fuel reprocessing was used to house the vessels associated with plutonium separation, concentration, material controls and batching for shipping.

Due to its configuration, this cell was a potentially oxygen-deficient confined workspace that required additional planning and work controls, including a trained and ready confined space rescue team. Link to article

August 22, 2022 – The largest – and often deemed the hottest – nuclear building at the West Valley Demonstration Project will start to come down next month.

With concrete walls one to five feet thick, it will be a laborious process to dismantle the building safely to contain the remaining radiation. The engineered demolition is expected to take 32 months.

“It’s not like taking a demolition ball and knocking it down,” said Joseph Pillittere, spokesman for the contractor, CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley. “We want to take it down piece by piece to maintain the stability of the structure. This is all preplanned.”

It is a major step in the more than half century of history at the former reprocessing plant 35 miles south of Buffalo, where 640 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel was processed to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. Link to article