WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – It has been 20 years since a human has been allowed in the Vitrification Cell at EM’s West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP), where past operations involved solidifying liquid high-level radioactive waste.
WVDP workers are cleaning up the cell in the Vitrification Facility as part of greater efforts to decontaminate the facility and prepare for its safe and compliant demolition.
“The West Valley Demonstration Project was the only operational commercial used fuel reprocessing facility in the U.S. This marks a major milestone in advancing the Phase I Decommissioning – Facility Disposition,” WVDP Director Bryan Bower said of workers entering the cell. “Many of the current workers were involved in the construction of the Vitrification Facility, and now they are taking part in the deconstruction.”
To watch a video of the deactivation in the cell, click here.
Inside the cell, which is 70 feet long, 43 feet wide and 46 feet tall, workers will:
Remove loose radiological contamination;
Stabilize four cooling units embedded in the concrete ceiling;
Perform isolated “hot spot” decontamination of the cell walls;
Remove air filters;
Place protective covers over the shield windows;
Apply fixative to removable floor sections, filter covers and other items to be left in the cell for removal during demolition; and
Add a final coat of fixative over the cell ceiling and walls, which keeps dust in place during the demolition process.
Workers were allowed to enter the cell after all major components used in the vitrification process were removed, which allowed deactivation activities to be conducted more safely.
Crane-supported shears and robotic arms cut jumpers and piping. Components were disconnected and placed in specially designed containers. Some packages were filled with grout to fix contamination, eliminate void space, reduce radioactivity dose rates external to the containers, and stabilize the components inside the containers. The components and piping were dismantled remotely.
Three major vitrification components collectively weighing more than 300,000 pounds — the melter, the Concentrator Feed Makeup Tank and the Melter Feed Hold Tank — were removed from the cell and placed in safe storage on the southern plateau of the site until they can be transported to a permanent disposal site.
Workers also remotely removed from the cell as much of the contaminated and potential hazardous materials as possible, including lead counterweights, petroleum-based oils from cranes and material packaged as mixed or hazardous wastes. That work also allowed workers to enter the cell to perform additional decontamination and further reduce the radiological source term in the highly radioactive cell prior to demolition.
“The crews have been actively involved in the work planning process to ensure we complete this demolition as successfully as the 01-14 Building — safe, compliant demolition,” said Tom Dogal with Facility Disposition at CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, EM’s WVDP contractor.
During commercial fuel processing conducted at the site between 1966 and 1972, approximately 600,000 gallons of liquid high-level waste was generated. Inside underground tanks, the waste separated into high-activity and low-activity portions.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the low-activity portion was mixed with cement and disposed of as low-level waste offsite in 2006 and 2007.
Workers solidified the liquid high-level waste extracted from the underground tanks into borosilicate glass through the vitrification process and filled 275 10-foot-tall canisters. The canisters are stored in a shielded cell inside the Main Plant Process Building, where they are being added to concrete casks and placed on an on-site interim storage pad awaiting offsite disposal.
After the last canister was filled in 2002, the system was flushed and powered down, and the cleanup focus shifted from vitrification to decontamination, deactivation and dismantlement of the cell.