I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3101 
To authorize the United States Department of Energy to remediate the 
Western New York Nuclear Service Center in the Town of Ashford, 
New York, and dispose of nuclear waste. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 29, 2005 
Mr. KUHL of New York (for himself, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr. REYNOLDS, and 
Mr. HIGGINS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To authorize the United States Department of Energy to 
remediate the Western New York Nuclear Service Center 
in the Town of Ashford, New York, and dispose of nu-
clear waste. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘West Valley Remedi-
ation Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(1) The Federal Government has had the pri-
mary and central role in initiating, establishing, and 
providing material for spent nuclear fuel reprocess-
ing and waste burial operations at the Center. 
(2) The Federal Government has availed itself 
of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing operations at the 
Center, and has benefited from such operations to 
process and store at the Center radioactively con-
taminated materials generated in, and by, various 
Federal civilian and military programs. 
(3) Under the West Valley Demonstration 
Project Act, New York State has contributed over 
$200,000,000 toward site remediation, making New 
York the only State that has contributed toward the 
cleanup of a high-level radioactive waste site. 
(4) Since passage of the West Valley Dem-
onstration Project Act, substantial progress has been 
made in the remediation of radioactive wastes at the 
Center, but the remediation of the Center has not 
been completed. 
(5) The Federal Government agreed in 1987 to 
prepare an environmental impact statement con-
cerning closure for the post-vitrification phase of the 
West Valley Demonstration Project, as will be need-
ed for remediation of the Center, and has made sub-
stantial progress since then in preparing such an en-
vironmental impact statement for the Center, includ-
ing the issuance of a draft environmental impact 
statement in 1996, but the environmental impact 
statement has not been completed. 
(6) The lack of certainty about Federal respon-
sibility for the remaining remediation necessary at 
the Center may impede progress toward completion 
of the cleanup. 
(7) Completion of the remaining remediation at 
the Center in a prompt, thorough, and effective 
manner, in full compliance with all applicable State 
and Federal laws and regulations, is in the best in-
terest of the United States, the Great Lakes region 
as a whole, the State and its citizens, and the Sen-
eca Nation of Indians and its members, which Na-
tion occupies ancestral territory downstream of the 
Center. 
(8) The facilities and contamination at the Cen-
ter are located on or in Pleistocene glacial deposits 
that are being actively eroded by nearby creeks that 
drain into the Great Lakes basin. To maintain the 
long-term stability of any facilities that may remain 
at the Center, active monitoring and maintenance of 
erosion controls and other engineered features will
be required for as long as any residual radioactive 
and hazardous waste and materials that may remain 
at the Center present a hazard to the public. 
(9) Public participation has been an important 
part of the work already done, and the planning now 
in progress, toward remediation of radioactive 
wastes at the Center. 
(b) PURPOSES.—(1) It is the intent of Congress that 
the Federal Government achieve complete remediation of 
all radioactive, solid, and hazardous waste contamination 
at the Center in a manner that is protective of the Great 
Lakes region and its residents and is consistent with all 
applicable State and Federal laws and regulations regard-
ing public health and safety. 
(2) This Act establishes exclusive Federal responsi-
bility for the complete remediation of the Center. 
(3) The Secretary shall employ the best current tech-
nologies and develop new state-of-the-art technologies and 
methodologies to accomplish the complete remediation of 
the Center. 
(4) This Act recognizes the importance of State, 
Tribal, and public involvement in the development, selec-
tion, enforcement, and monitoring of remedial actions un-
dertaken at the Center, to protect the health and safety 
of the citizens and environment of the Great Lakes region.
(5) This Act shall replace and supersede the West 
Valley Demonstration Project Act. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘Center’’ means— 
(A) the Western New York Nuclear Service 
Center in West Valley, New York; and 
(B) all land, roads, structures, including 
buildings, fixtures, containers, and radioactive, 
hazardous, and solid waste and nuclear material 
at the Western New York Nuclear Service Cen-
ter, including the reprocessing and storage fa-
cilities, equipment, above-ground and under-
ground tanks, solidified radioactive waste, and 
radioactive and nonradioactive wastes and ma-
terials in the State and Commission licensed 
disposal areas, located within the legal bound-
aries of the Western New York Nuclear Service 
Center. 
(2) The term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission. 
(3) The term ‘‘hazardous waste’’ means any 
solid waste designated as hazardous waste under 40 
CFR Part 261 or as may be subsequently defined as 
such by the Environmental Protection Agency, any
solid waste designated as a hazardous waste under 
the State program authorized by the Environmental 
Protection Agency pursuant to the Solid Waste Dis-
posal Act, and any waste material designated as a 
hazardous waste under any other State statute or 
regulation. 
(4) The term ‘‘high level radioactive waste’’ 
means the high level radioactive waste which was 
produced by the reprocessing at the Center of spent 
nuclear fuel. Such term includes both liquid wastes 
which are produced directly in reprocessing, dry 
solid material derived from such liquid waste, and 
any such other material the Commission designates 
as high level radioactive waste for purposes of pro-
tecting public health and safety. 
(5) The term ‘‘License Termination Rule’’ 
means the rule of the Commission published at 62 
Federal Register 39058. 
(6) The term ‘‘low level radioactive waste’’ 
means radioactive waste not classified as high level 
radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, transuranic 
waste, or byproduct material as defined in section 11 
e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. 
(7) The term ‘‘nuclear materials’’ means any 
special nuclear material, source material, or byprod-