Press Release-09-145, NRC to Host Open House Sept. 16 to Discuss Review Status of West Valley Demonstration Project Decommissioning Plan
| ML092450571 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | P00M-032 |
| Issue date: | 09/01/2009 |
| From: | Office of Public Affairs |
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| References | |
| Press Release-09-145 | |
| Download: ML092450571 (2) | |
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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 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 agencys review of the Department of Energys (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 DOEs decommissioning plan, and that DOE
would review and consider NRCs comments before initiating Phase 1 decommissioning activities.
Phase 2 decommissioning of the remainder of the WVDP and center, or its long-term management, will be determined in the future and are not part of this decommissioning plan.
A copy of the DOEs decommissioning plan and the NRCs letter of acceptance to DOE are available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) under accession numbers ML083659423 and ML090780848 respectively. ADAMS is accessible via the agencys web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRCs 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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