In a project that saves taxpayer money, cleanup crews refurbished a former storage facility for waste disposal operations during the teardown of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP).
Office of Environmental Management
February 22, 2022
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WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – In a project that saves taxpayer money, cleanup crews refurbished a former storage facility for waste disposal operations during the teardown of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP).
EM and cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley completed modifications to the onsite storage facility for use in preparing containers of demolition waste for loading and shipment to an offsite disposal location. Starting demolition of the Main Plant is an EM 2022 priority.
“The modifications to this facility demonstrate ingenuity and vision. Repurposing a facility for future work saves taxpayers money while maintaining our high safety and quality standards,” EM WVDP Director Bryan Bower said. “The safe completion of projects like this continues to bring us closer towards the future demolition of the Main Plant Process Building. I am proud of the work of our employees as we continue our cleanup mission at the site.”
Workers removed nearly 300 concrete curbs that previously supported storage operations at the facility prior to its transformation. They also took out a large concrete shield wall to make an entrance for a large fork truck that will transport intermodal waste containers in and out of the building. Crews also installed a large roll-up door, placed concrete for two ramps and a new floor, completed repairs to an overhead crane inside the building, and added three small access doors.
The 17,250-square-foot former storage facility was constructed in 1987 for remote loading, placement and shielded storage of about 20,000, 71-gallon square drums of waste generated from previous operations. The drums were later removed from the building and shipped by train to a low-level waste disposal facility.
The five-story, 35,000-square-foot Main Plant was constructed in the 1960s as a commercial reprocessing facility to recover reusable plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear reactor fuel. It operated from 1966 to 1972.
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