NRC TO HOST OPEN HOUSE SEPT. 16 TO DISCUSS REVIEW STATUS OF 

WEST VALLEY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT DECOMMISSIONING PLAN 

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will host an open house Sept. 16 in West 

Valley, N.Y., to update the public on the agency’s review of the Department of Energy’s 

(DOE) Phase 1 decommissioning plan for the West Valley Demonstration Project 

(WVDP). 

 The session will be held at the Ashford Office Complex, Conference Room C-1, 

9030 Route 219, in West Valley, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Members of the NRC staff will give 

a brief overview of the NRC review process, and then be available to discuss various 

aspects of the review with members of the public. Stations with posters and other 

materials will address topics such as radiological dose assessment, hydraulic barrier 

evaluation, health physics and radiation surveys and sampling, among others. 

 The West Valley site is located on 3,300 acres of land known as the Western New 

York Nuclear Service Center. The WVDP site, which is a 200-acre portion of the center, 

contains a former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing facility that operated from 1966 

to 1972, and produced approximately 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level radioactive 

waste. The WVDP also contains contaminated structures and a radioactive waste disposal 

area. The WVDP also includes a waste tank farm, waste lagoons, and above-ground 

radioactive waste storage areas, with soil and groundwater contamination near these 

facilities. 

 DOE submitted Phase 1 of its decommissioning plan Dec. 3, 2008, and NRC 

accepted it for technical review in March. Phase 1 envisions remediation activities within 

the WVDP boundary, including removal of the Main Plant Process Building, the 

Vitrification Facility, source area of the North Plateau Groundwater Plume, wastewater 

treatment facility lagoons, and ancillary buildings, foundations, slabs and pads. 

 Through the West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980, Congress gave 

NRC authority to review and consult with DOE informally on certain matters related to 

the project. In a subsequent memorandum of understanding, the two agencies agreed that 

NRC would review and comment upon DOE’s decommissioning plan, and that DOE 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 

Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 

E-mail: opa.resource@nrc.gov

Site: http://www.nrc.gov

No. 09-145 September 1, 2009
would review and consider NRC’s comments before initiating Phase 1 decommissioning 

activities. 

 

Phase 2 decommissioning of the remainder of the WVDP and center, or its longterm management, will be determined in the future and are not part of this 

decommissioning plan. 

 A copy of the DOE’s decommissioning plan and the NRC’s letter of acceptance 

to DOE are available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management 

Systems (ADAMS) under accession numbers ML083659423 and ML090780848 

respectively. ADAMS is accessible via the agency’s web site at: 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is available by 

contacting the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by 

e-mail at PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. 

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