By RICK MILLER
CattCoNews&Photos
LITTLE VALLEY — Demolition of the top three floors of the massive Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project has gone smoothly, CHBWV president Jason Casper told Cattaraugus County lawmakers Wednesday.
The company manages the Phase 1 cleanup at the former nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the town of Ashford. That contract should be complete after mid-2025 when the Main Plant Process Building has been leveled to ground level.
It could take another 10 years to complete the excavation of the footprint of the building to a depth of 30 feet, Casper said. A strontium 90 leak from the 1960s or early 1970s pooled structure at the foundation of the before making its way offsite toward an area creek. The underground strontium “plume” was later intercepted and treated using a permeable treatment barrier in a long trench.
Next comes Phase 2, which will involve the removal or filling in place underground storage tanks which once held hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid radioactive waste. The liquid waste has been solidified into 275 steel casks, each 10-feet tall, which are awaiting a permanent off-site storage facility.
The extent of the cleanup has not yet been determined.
Casper said the cost of the cleanup averages about $100 million a year.
Debris from the controlled demolition of the Main Plant Process Building has been transported in intermodal containers via railroad to Texas and Nevada. Last year, the plant shipped 9,000 tons of waste.
The cost to demolish the Main Plant Process Building has been pegged at $150 million, Casper said.
Crews have been removing contaminated material including equipment, tanks, miles of piping and other contaminated material for decades in preparation for the demolition of the building.
The demolition is going slow for safety reasons to avoid spreading contaminated material, Casper said.
There are detailed plans to follow to remove items once a room is opened by one of the excavators on site. Radioactive items are safely removed, isolated and packed for shipping offsite. Dust is contained by mists of water during demolition.
COUNTY LEGISLATORS later voted on several resolutions, including opposing the Renewable Action Through Interconnection and Deployment Act or RAPID Act, which passed as part of the 2024-25 state budget.
The Act, also referred to as Part 0, streamlines the process of building transmission lines from new solar and wind projects. It largely removes municipal home rule from the equation in order to meet future state alternate energy goals.
Legislators also approved a resolution submitted for immediate consideration to p-rovide up to $120,000 to the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency to serve as lead agency in arranging agreements for a RevRail Project using IDA-owned rail lines in the northwest part of the county.
RevRail is a company that utilizes stretches of short-line railroads for “bikes” that fit on the rails and can be peddled for miles in scenic areas. It has an operation in the Adirondacks and in several other states.
The county wants to be a strong partner in promoting tourism through RevRail, the resolution states. Sponsors were: Kelly Andreano, R-Olean; Donald Benson, R-Allegany; Michael Brisky, R-Franklinville; Chairman Andrew Burr, R-Gowanda and Norman Marsh, R-Little Valley.
RevRail is considering using IDA-owned rails going north from the Village of Cattaraugus. The rail bikes could start running this summer
Gowanda-based New York & Lake Erie Railroad, which operates the IDA-owned rail lines, has also tested prototype rail bikes and could be renting them out at another location this summer.
A resolution encouraging passage of several State Senate bills that would aid Rescue and EMS services and strengthen emergency medical services across the state was also approved Legislator Joseph Boberg, R-Delevan joined Burr and Brisky as sponsors.
Also approved was a contract with Fired Up Catering, Bradford, Pa., to operate its food truck in the parking lot of the Pines Olean Campus on West State Street in Olean.
The County Legislature adjourned in memory of the late Hope B. Phillips, a former assessment records supervisor in the Real Property Tax Office who retired in 2004 and Dr. Terry H. Martin, a former chief planner who retired in 2006.
An excavator deposits material in a lined box for offsite shipment during demolition of the Main Plant Process Building at the West Valley Demonstration Project in the town of Ashford. Three of the building’s five floors have been removed.
CHBWV Photo
