October 1980
The West Valley Demonstration Project Act of 1980 directed DOE to construct a
high-level nuclear waste solidification demonstration at the West Valley Plant
in New York. The only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the United
States to be operated, the West Valley Plant recovered uranium and plutonium
from spent nuclear fuel from 1966-1972 and produced nearly 600,000 gallons of
high-level nuclear waste that was stored at the plant. The vitrification
facility, which immobilizes liquid and sludge-type waste by dissolving it in
molten glass, is scheduled to begin operation in 1996 and to complete operation
in 1998. The second phase of the demonstration, decontamination and
decommissioning, will continue after the vitrification phase is complete. Two
other commercial reprocessing plants, one in Morris, Illinois and one in
Barnwell, South Carolina, have never been operated.
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