WEST VALLEY, N.Y. – An EM crew recently finished deactivating a facility at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) Site after safely removing asbestos-containing material.

Piping and insulation inside the former fuel receiving and storage facility contained the material that needed to be removed to prepare for eventual demolition. Workers pulled out 700 feet of piping — equivalent in length to about 17 school buses end to end — over five months.

“This team used their combined knowledge and lessons learned from previous asbestos-containing material work activities to safely complete this project,” EM WVDP Federal Project Director Steve Bousquet said. “The safe and compliant disposition of asbestos-containing material is another important step in the progress towards the future demolition of this facility.”

Other deactivation work at the facility included isolating piping, applying fixative to piping, and relocating two 69,000-pound waste containers.

The building was used from 1965 to 1972 to receive and store spent nuclear fuel before it was reprocessed to recover reusable plutonium and uranium.

Bill Freaney, a deactivation and decommissioning crew foreman with CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, EM’s WVDP cleanup contractor, commended his crew members for their hard work and dedication to safety during the project.

“Working with asbestos-containing material is the most physically challenging work at the site when you include radiological and industrial hazards, layers of protective clothing, and limited mobility,” Freaney said. “This crew used lessons learned to enhance safety, improve efficiency, and reduce exposure to job related hazards. They put their collective knowledge into practice.”