As of March 9, 427 intermodal containers filled with radiologically-contaminated soil or debris had been shipped to EnergySolutions from the Balance of Site Facilities cleanup at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York, a contractor representative told the West Valley Citizen Task Force meeting last week.
Kelly Wooley, deputy general manager for the West Valley nuclear cleanup project for CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, shared the low-level waste shipping information with the task force in a March 24 evening presentation. The intermodal containers were shipped in 73 railcars to EnergySolutions in Clive, Utah.
Crews also recently finished replacing a large culvert on an onsite roadway that will carry heavy equipment during Main Plant demolition, Wooley said. The West Valley cleanup contract is also awaiting bids this month on the design and installation of a new guard house, Wooley said.
CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley had its contract, now valued at $871 million, extended about two years ago through June 2023. The contractor is focused on finishing demolition of the Main Plant Process Building, the last remaining major facility remaining at the complex located 30 miles south of Buffalo, N.Y.
Meanwhile, on March 9, the Jacobs-led contractor lifted its COVID-19-related masking requirements based on new federal guidance, Wooley said.
In January, the contractor said essentially all of its on-site employees were either vaccinated against COVID-19 or have received exemptions from taking the inoculation. The CH2M-BWXT team will continue to monitor regional COVID-19 statistics and government guidance for safeguarding against the virus.
In addition, the West Valley Task Force is putting together a “Structured Invitation for Input From Outside Experts” to help the task force prepare its review of an upcoming Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement by the Department of Energy and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority on whether to dig up and remove certain radioactive wastes buried at West Valley — or stabilize it in place.
The prep work for the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is still in the nascent stages and “once the draft schedule is completed we will share it with our stakeholders,” a spokesperson for the West Valley contractor said Thursday.
West Valley sits on about 200 acres inside the 3,300-acre Western New York Nuclear Service Center. A private company, Nuclear Fuel Services, operated a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant there for six years ending in 1972. BWX Technologies has since acquired Nuclear Fuel Services.
