Decontamination and Decommissioning

The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is moving forward with facility decontamination, and eventual decommissioning, as required by the WVDP Act. The former spent fuel reprocessing plant, also used to support some aspects of the Project's high-level waste solidification program, is a facility requiring decommissioning per the WVDP Act. A primary focus for the Project through 2004 was the decontamination of areas within the Main Plant, specifically the Process Mechanical Cell (PMC), the General Purpose Cell (GPC), and Extraction Cell-2 (XC-2). The PMC and the GPC cells are also referred to as the Head End Cells (HEC).

The PMC was originally used during spent fuel reprocessing operations to cut open fuel bundles and size reduce the fuel rods prior to chemical treatment to remove recoverable radionuclides.  The GPC was used as a staging and packaging area during the reprocessing operations.  Finally, XC-2 was used to extract reusable materials from the dissolved spent fuel and to purify and store recovered plutonium and uranium.

The footprint of nonessential buildings and trailers is currently being reduced.  This project involves moving site personnel to other office spaces located both on site and at the Ashford Office Complex.  Vacated office trailers will then be prepared for removal by safely isolating them from site utilities and removing all attached walkways, awnings, and skirting.  Once these actions are complete, the trailers will be safely lifted from their foundations and placed on a transport trailer for removal off site.  The remaining areas will be graded and seeded.  The trailers to be removed have been sold to a local firm for refurbishment, eliminating the need to add the considerable volume of demolition debris to local landfills.