As part of its Energy & Water funding bill advanced last week, the House Appropriations Committee wants the Department of Energy’s cleanup office to report within six months on what to do about certain radioactive waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y.
The bill passed out of House Appropriations would order DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to “develop a plan that outlines the disposal options, timelines, and state and local regulatory issues” for “orphaned waste” at West Valley.
“EM shall brief the committee not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act on recommendations for the West Valley Demonstration Project,” according to language of the bill report.
What to do about certain wastes at New York state-owned West Valley has been a long-running concern for Congress and DOE.
At the urging of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) produced a report on West Valley cleanup and costs in January 2021. West Valley is the one-time home of a commercially-owned facility that reprocessed used nuclear fuel.
Much remediation has been done at the site over the years and DOE currently has about 30,000 cubic feet of transuranic waste in interim storage at the site, according to the GAO report. But DOE does not consider this material at West Valley “defense-related” and as a result, it is not eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
“ In 2017, DOE submitted to Congress a report on all disposal options, as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005,” GAO said in the 2021 report. “Pursuant to this act, DOE must await action by Congress before making a final decision, and Congress has not yet acted.”