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.
August 3, 2019 – Employees at EM West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) recently helped two local nonprofits with landscaping, maintenance, and other work as part of United Way volunteer efforts.
One WVDP team painted three classrooms at Delevan Head Start, and removed weeds, raked leaves, and added mulch to the school’s playground. A second team installed a new 120-foot-long wooden fence at Springville Youth, Inc., which offers recreational activities. Link to Update
August 31, 2019 – The following is a guest column from the Town of Ashford Board:
Once again, the Town of Ashford and the West Valley Demonstration Project are on the outside looking in as far the United States Department of Energy is concerned. A recent DOE proposal for interpreting high-level waste might have cleared the way for relocation of West Valley’s high-level waste, but DOE has now updated that proposal to exclude West Valley. Also, DOE could be disposing the transuranic waste that has been stored at the site since the 1980s, but DOE refuses to dispose of this waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the one disposal site in the nation where it belongs. The Town of Ashford and its residents deserve better. Link to column
August 29, 2019 – Crews recently demolished the Utility Room Extension building (URE) at the West Valley Demonstration Project. The URE was added to the Main Plant Utility Room in 1994 and 1995 to provide additional power needed for the vitrification melter that was used to solidify 600,000 of high-level liquid radioactive waste from 1996 to 2002. This recent demolition brings EM’s total number of structures removed at West Valley to 63. Link to article
August 27, 2019 – An EM team from the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) recently visited the Hanford Site in Washington state to learn lessons from the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) demolition project to apply to a future teardown at WVDP.
The WVDP representatives toured the PFP site and received a project update. PFP demolition activities resumed nearly a year ago after work was stopped in December 2017 following a spread of low levels of contamination. PFP was the last stop of Cold War plutonium processing on the Hanford Site. Link to Update
August 25, 2019 – CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley employees, the Department of Energy’s prime contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project, used their day off to roll up their sleeves and work together to make a difference in their community. Employees helped two local non-profits improve their landscaping, building aesthetics and other needed maintenance repairs as part of their continued commitment to the community. Link to article
