The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee voted Wednesday to recommend the Government Accountability Office (GAO) prepare a report on the types of radioactive waste at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, but stopped short of saying the material should be deemed defense related.
The panel approved, by voice vote, an amended version of legislation proposed by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) to authorize the site’s funding to $75 million annually through fiscal 2028. The original Reed version would have defined the site’s waste as coming from “atomic energy defense activities” as defined by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. While defense-related transuranic waste is sent to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, commercial waste at WVDP lacks an obvious disposal path, according to New York officials.
The amendment by subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) kept the funding level. However, it deleted the defense waste language and instead solely called for a GAO study.
The report, due within two years of the bill’s passage, would detail what types and volumes of radioactive waste are at West Valley and options for its disposal, along with cost data. The measure will now go to the full Energy and Commerce Committee.
The 1980 West Valley Demonstration Act put the Energy Department in charge of cleanup of the site where a company, Nuclear Fuel Services, had operated a facility for spent fuel reprocessing. As it was not a government plant, West Valley is not considered part of the Cold War nuclear weapons program, although much of its waste came from defense reactors.
