Nuclear plant dismantlers prepare for next phase

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the lead contractor decommissioning a former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing center near Buffalo, New York, have held public meetings to explain the next stage in the multi-year project.

An online news article by the Olean (New York) Times Herald says some 35 western New York residents attended the meetings held by the DOE and CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley LLC (CHBWV), the lead contractor of the complicated project. CH2M Hill is an engineering and contracting firm based in Colorado.

CHBWV, on a its website, says it was selected by the DOE to conduct Phase I Decommissioning activities at the WVDP under an 8.6-year, $461.4 million contract that began in August 2011. In 2020, the DOE extended CHBWV’s cleanup contract to last through June 2023. The new total contract value may run as high as $836 million.

The next phase of the project, which could start this December, is described by a DOE official in the Times Herald article as “like taking apart a large building made out of Lego blocks — brick by brick. You cut out a piece, pack it up and repeat.” Adds the DOE project supervisor, “There will be no piles of radioactive debris laying around.”

It is far from the first dismantling or demolition activity at the site, according to CHBWV, which says since 2011 it has “been leading cleanup and facility demolition activities and is actively engaged in removing radioactive waste, contaminated equipment and obsolete structures from the 200-acre site.”

The Ashford, New York, site, formerly known as the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, once carried out reprocessing and solidification of radioactive liquid wastes, according to the Maryland-based