Before and after demolition: (1) Workers take the “first bite” during the start of the Main Plant Process Building demolition in 2022. (2) The Fuel Receiving and Storage Facility is now visible from this vantage point following the completion of the building demolition this month. Workers have begun groundwork to install a protective cover over the Main Plant footprint. (Image: DOE)
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and its cleanup contractor CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) completed the on-time removal of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in New York. Located 35 miles south of Buffalo, the 150-acre WVDP site is home to the only commercial spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility to operate in the United States.
According to DOE-EM, demolition of the five-story, 35,100-square-foot building, which was used to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from reprocessed spent fuel, meets a 2025 priority for the office’s cleanup program.
Watch a video highlighting DOE-EM’s and CHBWV’s work in completing the demolition here.
The work: Demolition of the Main Plant Process Building began in the fall of 2022 using a deliberately planned and sequenced deconstruction approach and work controls. At the time, the work was expected to take 30 months.
Radioactively contaminated from fuel reprocessing operations and related activities, the building also contained hazardous materials, including asbestos insulation, lead, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
“Thanks to hard work and dedication, West Valley reduced radioactivity in the building by over 98 percent, removed more than 7 miles of contaminated piping, and disposed of over 50 tons of contaminated equipment, all while working safely and compliantly in alignment with EM’s mission, on time, and under budget by over $30 million,” said Roger Jarrell, DOE-EM’s principal deputy assistant secretary.
Background: Operating from 1963 to 1972, WVDP processed 640 metric tons of spent fuel and generated over 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste. In 1980, Congress passed the WVDP Act, which required the DOE to conduct a high-level waste management demonstration project at the site and transport it to a federal repository for disposal.
The site is owned by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. CHBWV was selected by the DOE in 2011 as the WVDP cleanup contractor.
