Crews Prep for Final Major Teardown at West Valley

WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – Crews prepared a large demolition excavator for the installation of a long-reach arm as they readied for the future teardown of the last remaining major facility at the West Valley Demonstration Project, an EM 2020 priority. Built in the 1960s, the Main Plant Process Building was used as a commercial reprocessing facility to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. The five-story facility operated from 1966 to 1972, processing about 640 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel. EM and cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley also recently began grouting a large underground cell at the site to provide structural stability for when heavy demolition equipment operates aboveground to tear down the Main Plant Process Building. The cell, which is nearly 30 feet below ground, will remain in place until the underground portion of the Main Plant Process Building is removed in the future.