Olean Times Herald, February 21, 2024 —

WEST VALLEY — The Department of Energy and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) used innovative thinking to improve safety and efficiency and save taxpayer money by acquiring new automated tools for demolition equipment.

“The WVDP team uses diversity, collaboration and inclusion to its advantage when developing innovation solutions during cleanup activities,” said Stephen Bousquet, EM West Valley Project Management Assistant Director. “Combining their differences and strengths helps the team improve safety, increase efficiency and reduce costs.”

The new tools, known as quick couplers, feature an advanced automatic coupling system that enables an operator to change quickly between various attachments used in cleanup from inside the cab of an excavator while conducting demolition work on the Main Plant Process Building at West Valley.

Read the full article here.

Olean Times Herald, February 21, 2024 —

 OLEAN — Cattaraugus County Concerned Citizens, an environmental and health watchdog over the past four decades, is seeking new members in order to carry on its mission. 

Concerned Citizens formed in the early 1990s in response to a proposed landfill in Farmersville and reorganized in 2010 to fight a proposed 29-turbine wind farm in the Chipmunk area in the town of Allegany. 

Cattaraugus County and Concerned Citizens fought against the proposed landfill and it was effectively stopped in 2004. Five years later, the county auctioned off parcels there with the understanding the land could never be used for a landfill. 

Ironically, another Farmersville project, the proposed Alle-Catt Wind Farm, split the remaining members of Concerned Citizens and it dropped out of the coalition of groups and individuals opposed to the wind farm. 

Read the full article here.

EM Update, February 20, 2024 —

WEST VALLEY, N.Y. — EM and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP)

used innovative thinking to improve safety and efficiency and save taxpayer money by acquiring new

automated tools for demolition equipment.

“The WVDP team uses diversity, collaboration and inclusion to its advantage when developing innovation solutions during cleanup activities,” EM West Valley Project Management Assistant Director Stephen Bousquet said. “Combining their differences and strengths helps the team improve safety, increase efficiency and reduce costs.”

The new tools, known as quick couplers, feature an advanced automatic coupling system that enables an operator to change quickly between various attachments used in cleanup from inside the cab of an excavator while conducting demolition work on the Main Plant Process Building at West Valley.

Read the full article here.

February 8, 2024, Olean Times Herald

The Department of Energy’s West Valley Demonstration Project has demolished a former security guardhouse built in 1965, one of the first facilities constructed at the former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility. 

The facility was originally only 168 square feet until two additions increased its square footage to 700. A new guardhouse was constructed last year to better serve the continued needs of the site as it progresses toward the next cleanup phase. 

“While not the most complex or difficult demolition we have done at West Valley, it is still a significant historic milestone in our cleanup efforts,” said Jennifer Dundas, EM’s West Valley assistant director for the Office of Technical Services. “Our crews did an excellent job in their safe execution of this demolition work.” 

Read the full article here.

February 8, 2024, ECA Update

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project have removed the largest of nine tanks from a liquid waste cell as part of the ongoing demolition of the Main Plant Process Building, the office announced on February 6. 

The tanks were used to collect liquid waste from past nuclear fuel reprocessing operations, and later, high-level radioactive waste vitrification processes. 

Read the full article here.