Key Documents

Overview

The clean up of the West Valley Demonstration Project and Western New York Nuclear Service Center have generated many forms of legal and other documents. The Citizen Task Force has reviewed and commented on documents and filings created by various state and federal agencies and created some documents of its own. Many of the key documents may be found through links on this page. A number of these and other documents may be found with meeting materials for the Citizen Task Force and on the DOE website for the WVDP and NYSERDA website for the WNYNSC. Other documents may be found on the DOE website, those include information and filings related to the Decommissioning Plan, Waste Incidental to Reprocessing and a number of other topics.

As part of the Phased Decision Making Process DOE and NYSERDA are conducting the Phase 1 Studies Process during which independent expert work groups on erosion, exhumation and engineered barriers are conducting studies to inform the Phase 2 decision. Information on that process can be found on the Phase 1 Studies website.

The documents are divided into broad categories:

CTF Final Report and Related CTF Documents
Legal Drivers
NEPA and Related
Other Studies

To view a category click on the shaded area and to close the summary click on the same area again. When the category opens you will see a list of documents, click on the PDF Link to open it in a new window. Please note that some of these documents are quite large.

CTF Final Report and Related CTF Documents

During the course of its work the Citizen Task Force has commented on various plans and documents, passed several resolutions and communicated with federal and state agencies and others about its concerns and appreciation. Below are links to a number of those documents. Other documents may be found with meeting materials and correspondence.

Please see the Phase One Studies section above for links to the CTF comments on the various studies.

Legal Drivers

Legal drivers of the cleanup process include legislation, regulatory rulings, court stipulations and decrees, and legal memoranda of understanding/cooperative agreements.

West Valley Demonstration Project Act
- West Valley Demonstration Project Act
- Legislative History
- House Resolution 3101
- Senate Resolution S1806
NRC Final Policy Statement for West Valley (Decommissioning Criteria)
Various Cooperative Agreements between DOE & NYSERDA and between DOE and/or NYSERDA and others, including NRC, the Seneca Nation, may be found via the document index at www.wv.doe.gov
Stipulation of Compromise between DOE and Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Waste

NEPA and Related

The clean up is being planned and implemented pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Review Act (NEPA) and the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). The process calls for preparation of Environmental Impact Statements. The site has several EIS processes, including one which is phased. Not included here are a number of the documents including the full FEIS, Waste Management EIS, draft environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, decommissioning plan, NRC technical review and documents related to Waste Incidental to Reprocessing. Many of these are voluminous and may be found at www.wv.doe.gov.

Full Cost Accounting Study

On December 2, 2008, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition and the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes released an independent study on the long-term costs and environmental consequences of cleanup options for the West Valley nuclear waste site. The study used earlier draft environmental impact statements as a basis for its analysis.

The Full Cost Accounting Study compares the costs of digging up radioactive waste versus leaving buried waste onsite for the first 1,000 years. Funded by the State of New York, the study was conducted by Synapse Energy Economics, Tufts University, SUNY Fredonia and Radioactive Waste Management Association. The study concludes that onsite buried waste at the West Valley site is both high risk and expensive. Estimated cleanup costs range from $10 billion to $27 billion or more. The sponsoring organizations state that this is the first time a full cost accounting approach has been applied to a waste site cleanup project.

The West Valley Citizen Task Force has taken no position concerning the findings contained in the report.

Summary Findings

Phase 1 Studies

DOE and NYSERDA are conducting the Phase 1 Studies process to facilitate inter-agency consensus as they arrive at the Phase 2 Decision. That process has a devoted website. Below are the Guidance developed by the agencies and Citizen Task Force comments regarding the Phase 1 Studies. Documents such as FAQs, expert scopes of work, timelines and comments of other stakeholders and agency responses are found on the Phase One Studies website.