West Valley

1.0 Site Identification

2.0 Site Status Summary

The West Valley site is located on the Western New York Nuclear Service Center (Center) and comprises 3,300 acres of land established for siting a former reprocessing facility. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) holds the license and title to this site. The Center contains a former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility that operated from 1966 to 1972, and produced approximately 600,000 gallons of liquid HLW. The Center also contains contaminated structures and two radioactive waste disposal areas: (1) a 15-acre New York State-licensed disposal area (SDA) that operated as a commercial LLW disposal facility from 1963 to 1975, and (2) a 5-acre NRC-licensed disposal area (NDA) that received radioactive wastes from the reprocessing plant and associated facilities from 1966 through 1986. In addition to the reprocessing facility and disposal areas, the Center includes a HLW tank farm, waste lagoons, above-ground radioactive waste storage areas, with soil and groundwater contamination near these facilities.

In 1980, Congress enacted the West Valley Demonstration Project(WVDP)Act. Under the Act, DOE assumed exclusive possession of the 200-acre portion of the Center which includes the former reprocessing facility, the NDA, the HLW tanks, waste lagoons, and above-ground waste storage areas. The WVDP Act authorized DOE to: solidify, transport and dispose of HLW that exists at the site; dispose of LLW and transuranic waste produced by the WVDP; and decontaminate and decommission facilities used for the WVDP in accordance with requirements prescribed by NRC. In 1981, NRC put the technical specifications of the license in abeyance to allow DOE to carry out the WVDP Act. In 2002, DOE completed the solidification of liquid HLW which was placed into 275 stainless steel canisters. The HLW canisters are expected to be stored onsite until shipped for disposal to a federal repository.

In 2002, the Commission issued its final policy statement on decommissioning criteria for the WVDP. The policy statement prescribed the NRC's License Termination Rule (LTR) (10 CFR part 20, subpart E) as the decommissioning criteria for the WVDP, reflecting the fact that the applicable goal for the entire NRC-licensed site is compliance with the requirements of the LTR.

In 1990, DOE and NYSERDA agreed to prepare a joint EIS to address the completion of WVDP and closure or long-term management of the Center. NRC is a cooperating agency for this EIS in accordance with its responsibilities under the WVDP Act. In September 2005, NRC and other cooperating agencies initiated a review of a preliminary (pre-decisional) draft of this EIS. In April 2006, cooperating agencies forwarded comments to DOE on the preliminary draft EIS.

In November 2006, the DOE convened a "Core Team" of federal and state agencies involved in the EIS. The Core Team's goal was to assist in addressing technical issues releated to the EIS. DOE issued a draft EIS for public comment in December 2008, and issued a final EIS in January 2010. In April 2010, DOE issued the EIS Record of Decision (ROD) which implements the DOE and NYSERDA preferred alternative (Phased Decision-making Alternative) identified in the EIS. Under the Phased Decision-making Alternative, decommissioning would proceed in two phases. Phase 1 involves near-term decommissioning work and studies that could facilitate future decisionmaking for the remaining facilities and areas. DOE intends to complete any remaining WVDP decommissioining decision-making with its Phase 2 decision (to be made within 10 years of this ROD).

In December 2008, DOE submitted a Phase 1 DP to NRC for review and comment. In February 2010, NRC issued a Technical Evaluation Report documenting its review of the Phase 1 DP.

3.0 Major Technical or Regulatory Issues

Phase 2 decision-making to complete decommissioning and/or long-term stewardship based on the approach determined appropriate during the additional Phase 1 studies and evaluations.

4.0 Estimated Date For Closure