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.
January 11, 2021 – A recent opinion piece published by The Buffalo News posed the question, “Can open‐air demolition of the former nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities located in West Valley be performed safely?,” while a letter to the editor implied that human health risks such as excess infant mortality had previously been linked to the West Valley operation.
Link to article
December 29, 2020 – For many years I was a full professor of energy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. One of my colleagues a professor of epidemiology made a study of infant mortality near the said plant (West Valley nuclear storage facility) and found it was greatly increased. The increase was along the Cattaraugus Creek and the Allegheny River all the way to Pittsburgh. Link to article
December 23, 2020 – With an eye to his environment agenda, President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Jennifer Granholm to be his secretary of energy. A perplexing move. She is a lawyer, a career politician, and a two-term Democratic governor of Michigan. She is about to head the world’s largest scientific organization.
Granholm will be found, after confirmation, on the 7th floor of the Forrestal Building, headquarters of the Department of Energy. It is a utilitarian, concrete structure in southwest Washington, across Independence Avenue from the romantic Smithsonian Castle. Link to article
December 24, 2020 – EM and its prime contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley recently grouted the general purpose cell. The GPC is a large cell that is nearly 30 feet below grade and will remain until the below grade portion of the main plant process building is removed in the future. The grout was placed in the GPC to provide structural stability to allow heavy demolition equipment to drive over the below grade rooms, while the main plant process building is being demolished. Work was performed by the Facility Disposition team, which is responsible for deactivation and demolition activities. Link to article
December 23, 2020 – U.S. Rep. Tom Reed said Monday that he hopes the cooperation between members of the House Problem Solvers Caucus and a group of senators exhibited on the coronavirus relief bill can contribute to a bipartisan dialogue in the 2021 Congress.
Speaking to reporters on his weekly press call, Reed highlighted the contents of the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that was sparked by House and Senate members. Link to article
