Energy Dept now seeks to leave West Valley Demonstration Project by 2008

Schumer: Federal government's work is incomplete; Energy Dept should not leave before underground tanks are removed, reprocessing facility is demolished, and problems with contaminated groundwater are addressed

US Senator Charles E. Schumer today said that the federal government should complete the cleanup of nuclear waste at West Valley before walking away from the site. A new deactivation plan calls for the federal Energy Department (DOE) to complete the bulk of its activity by 2008, leaving behind significant amounts of nuclear waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project.

"For 24 years the understanding has been that the Energy Department would fully clean up the waste before decontaminating and decommissioning the facility. At this point, its work is incomplete," Schumer said. "I understand the Energy Department doesn't want to be in West Valley forever, but leaving before the underground tanks are removed, the reprocessing facility is demolished, and the contaminated groundwater is addressed is not an acceptable solution."

According to the new deactivation plan, the Energy Department would end its work at the site in 2008, leaving high-level waste that had been removed from underground tanks and transformed into glass logs. The waste is being temporarily stored at West Valley's original fuel reprocessing building, with DOE planning to ship the waste to a government repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Yucca Mountain site will not open until 2010 at the earliest due to regulatory obstacles.

Under the new plan, the underground tanks currently at West Valley would remain in addition to the original reprocessing center and a ground water plume that is contaminated with strontium-90. The plan calls for placing grout around the underground tanks but not to exhume them.

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