EM crews recently demolished a former utility building at the West Valley Demonstration Project.
Office of Environmental Management
July 9, 2019
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WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – EM crews recently demolished a former utility building at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP), bringing the total number of structures removed at the site to 63.
“The completion of this work changes the landscape and footprint of the WVDP site, and is a reminder of the ongoing progress here,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said.
Scott Anderson, president of CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV), EM’s cleanup contractor at the site, said his employees used their combined knowledge and lessons learned to safely complete this work.
“The CHBWV team continues to make great progress towards the demolition of these historically significant facilities at West Valley with the completion of the utility room extension building," Anderson said. "Our team continues to complete demolition work at the site in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”
The 4,500-square-foot utility room extension building was built in the mid-1990s to provide additional power for operations to solidify 600,000 gallons of high-level liquid radioactive waste at the Main Plant Process Building. Those operations ended in 2002.
The utility building housed new equipment to support a decades-old electrical supply system, avoiding the need to replace aging equipment and preventing long outages or other impacts to site operations.
Included in the building were air compressors to supply workers with breathing and instrument air, two boilers to provide steam for heating and process operations, an emergency generator, control room, and an electrical switchgear room to support the building and its equipment.
The utility building was one of seven ancillary structures of the Main Plant Process Building, where vitrification activities occurred. Three other ancillary structures have been torn down, and three remain to be demolished.