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http://digital.buffalolib.org/files/original/d1caf9004d27c13dc75f5c3f1d0f3c36.mp4
f291186cc63589086b0e42700ef51a3f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Rich Newberg Reports Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection of long-form reports by retired WIVB-TV Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg covers a wide range of social issues, Buffalo history and the arts. Mr. Newberg retired from the Buffalo CBS network affiliate at the end of 2015, after serving the station for thirty-seven years in various roles including main anchor, reporter and documentarian. <br /><br />His New York Emmy Award winning pieces explore the abortion debate, care of the mentally ill, the African American struggle for civil rights, and the lessons of the Holocaust, among many topics. His video memoir, “One Reporter’s Journey, “ reflects on his forty-six year career, beginning as an advocate for those without a voice. <br /><br />"My hope," says Newberg, “is that this collection will provide a lasting chronicle of life and issues in Buffalo during the latter part of the 20th century and into the new millennium."
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Crisis at West Valley 5 : Present and Future Concerns
Subject
The topic of the resource
Radioactive waste disposal in the ground -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Radioactive waste sites -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Reactor fuel reprocessing -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Rich Newberg Reports Collection
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
WIVB (Television Station: Buffalo, N.Y.)
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (publisher of digital)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright held by WIVB-TV. Access to this digital version provided by the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Videos or images in this collection are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the expressed written permission of WIVB-TV and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Users of this website are free to utilize material from this collection for non-commercial and educational purposes.
Relation
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Digital Collections of the B&ECPL
Format
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video/mp4
Type
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Moving Image
Description
An account of the resource
The following videos show progress made in cleaning up the West Valley radioactive waste site. They include the solidification of the high level liquid waste that had been in underground tanks and the demolition of contaminated buildings. They also include the on-site storage of high and low level radioactive waste and the removal of some of this waste from the site.<br /><br /> Since the mid-1970s citizen watchdog groups including experts in the field of nuclear waste have expressed concern about the health, safety and environmental issues involved in the storage and management of nuclear waste at West Valley as well as the subsequent efforts to clean up the site. <br /><br />In 2020, decisions still must be made on how much nuclear waste can be left in trenches, holes, tanks and the below-ground portion of the building that once reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods. <br /><br />Watchdog groups continue to express concerns that the site itself is on rapidly eroding plateaus surrounded by creeks that drain through the Seneca Nation of Indians into Lake Erie. They warn that there is a potential for this erosion to reach the underground nuclear waste and release long-lasting dangerous radioactive materials into the Great Lakes. <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>VIDEOS</strong> </span><br /><br /><strong>1. Huge steel lined concrete casks provide on-site storage of high level radioactive glass logs converted from liquid waste at West Valley.</strong> <br />56 casks holding the high level waste are stored above ground on the property of the West Valley Demonstration Project site. They sit on a reinforced concrete slab until they can be shipped out to a national nuclear waste repository yet to be named. The casks each hold five canisters containing the glass logs which will remain highly radioactive for thousands of years. Each cask weights close to 90 tons. The high level waste needed to be removed from the plant at West Valley so building demolition could take place. <br /><em><strong>[“HLW Progress Video” produced by DOE contractor CH2M HILL BWXT WEST VALLEY, LLC. ; 7/7/2016 ; Runs: 1:58]</strong> </em><br /><br /><strong>2. Transporting highly radioactive building material from West Valley to Texas.</strong> <br />When U.S. Department of Energy Took over West Valley site it had to solidify 600,000 gallons of high level radioactive waste. The process, called vitrification, turned the liquid into glass like rods. While the solidified high level waste is still stored on-site at West Valley, the equipment used for the vitrification process then had to be safely packaged and disposed of off site. Each of three vessels containing highly radioactive dismantled parts from the “Melter” were loaded onto special trailers with 130 tires. They were then transported from West Valley, through neighborhoods, to the rail yard in Blasdell, New York. The giant containers were then taken by rail to waste control specialists at a site in Andrews, Texas. <br /><em><strong>[“Melter Shipment “ Video” produced by DOE contractor CH2M HILL BWXT WEST VALLEY, LLC. ; 12/14/2016 ; Runs: 3:57]</strong> </em><br /><br /><strong>3. Resident records radioactive waste from West Valley rolling through his neighborhood.</strong> <br />A citizen reacts to a huge vessel containing dismantled parts from the “Melter” being transported through his neighborhood. He provides a short narrative along with what he captures on video. <br /><em><strong>[Posted on YouTube by “Robert” ; October 26, 2016 ; Runs: 1:36]</strong> </em><br /><br /><strong>4. Second radioactive waste transport video posted on YouTube by “Robert”.</strong> <br />A week after recording the first transport of radioactive waste through his neighborhood, “Robert” posts a second video showing how the special trailer carrying its radioactive load, negotiates the crossing over railroad tracks. <br /><em><strong>[November 2, 2016 ; Runs: 2:33]</strong> </em><br /><br /><strong>5. Demolition of radioactive buildings begin at West Valley.</strong> <br />Demolishing the building where high level liquid radioactive waste was turned into a glass like substance - This radiological demolition requires continuous monitoring and specialized equipment. Continuous air monitors provide a real time read out for the protection of personnel on-site as well as the public and the environment. Citizen watchdog groups have strongly recommended that real time off-site monitoring of the air take place when demolition of the Main Processing Building is carried out. (See Requests by Citizen Watchdog Groups below.) <br /><em><strong>[“VIT DEMO V4” produced by DOE contractor CH2M HILL BWXT, WEST VALLEY, LLC. ; 12/19/2017 ; Runs: 4:28]</strong> </em><br /><br /><strong>6. The decisions that will impact generations to come.</strong> <br />This presentation produced by Diane D’Arrigo summarizes concerns by citizen watchdog groups and environmental experts who have been tracking developments at the West Valley nuclear waste site since the mid-1970s. Using original photographs and graphics, she presents the history of radioactive wastes at the site and concerns about the present and future storage of this hazardous material. Ms. D’Arrigo is a native of Western New York who now serves as the Radioactive Waste Project Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). She has been with NIRS since 1986 and has a degree in chemistry and environmental studies as well as work experience in analytical chemistry and biological research. <br /><em><strong>[NARRATED SLIDE PRESENTATION produced by Diane D’Arrigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director/Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) ; 5/18/2020 ; Runs: 20:25]</strong></em> <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Request by Citizen Watchdog Groups</strong> </span><br /><br />In 2006 the West Valley Action Network was created, comprised of local, state, regional, and international organizations. This network is pushing for a full cleanup of the West Valley nuclear waste site as soon as possible. It is providing public oversight for demolition, cleanup, and storage operations. <br /><br />The state and federal governments have commissioned a $4.3 million-dollar assessment study to determine the best way to proceed for the final cleanup phase. The study could take two to three more years to complete (2022-2023). <br /><br />As final plans are made, the Action Network is insisting on full disclosure of all information and assumptions used by the Department of Energy and the New York Energy Research and Development Authority to make decisions. The Network has also requested that a searchable electronic library be created to facilitate independent review of details. <br /><br />The next big physical challenge as of 2020 is the demolition of the main building where the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods took place from 1966 to 1972. The Action Network has called for the U.S. Department of Energy to provide the region with comprehensive real-time monitoring and reporting of the air — before, during, and after the demolition of the highly contaminated Main Plant Processing Building. <br /><br />One of the Action Network organizations, The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), has issued warnings about the potential spread of radioactivity in the air and water downstream and downwind of the West Valley site. NIRS is an activist organization that supports renewable energy and opposes nuclear power. <br /><br />Diane D’Arrigo, a Western New York native who serves as the Radioactive Waste Director for NIRS, says the Main Plant Building may be “the most intensely radioactive building in the nuclear power and weapons fuel chain…” She points out that the D.O.E. and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the state agency responsible for the fifteen-acre burial site, “refuse to monitor offsite in real time…” She says, “The general population and local government officials are entitled to know if radioactivity has contaminated the air as the massive cleanup effort continues.” <br /><br />D’Arrigo warns that “some of the radioactivity from the West Valley site will stay radioactive for hundreds, thousands, millions of years--so the contamination is irreversible. Some long-lasting radioactivity from West Valley operations between 1966 and 1972 has been detected throughout Western New York on land and in water as far as Lake Ontario.” <br /><br />During the time the plant was active, there was a spill in the basement. Strontium 90, among many radioactive isotopes, made their way from the basement into the ground water. A radioactive plume is now a quarter of a mile long. The Department of Energy has used Zeolite, a special kind of clay, to absorb the radioactive material. This “interceptor wall” is 900 feet long and 20 feet deep. However, Joanne Hameister, a research analyst who has spent forty years representing the public’s interest at West Valley, notes that water has a way of rerouting itself. She believes removing the source of the leaking Strontium and the contaminated soil would be a better solution, although very costly. <br /><br />“If the plume keeps on moving,” she says, “it can hit a bunch of creeks. That plateau is loaded with creeks. They all lead into Buttermilk Creek, which drains into Cattaraugus Creek, which drains into Lake Erie. That is right around the corner from Sturgeon Point, where Erie County gets its water. Strontium 90 takes three hundred years to decay to levels that are more difficult to detect. <br /><br />Right now, there are no plans to remove the earth or massive network of pipes under the Main Processing Building when demolition is carried out. Hameister says she is also concerned about the workers who will take part in the project. “That place is hot. There has to be a lot of worker protection.” She also wants assurances there will be some kind of protective covering over the building while it is being dismantled. “They’ll be chopping up walls,” she says. “They have to monitor the excursion from the site during that process. You just don’t want that stuff flying around.” <br /><br />In addition, there is concern that soil erosion resulting from floods in 2009 is making its way closer to the trenches where radioactive waste is buried. Future flooding, say members of the West Valley Action Network, could potentially threaten releases of radioactive elements into brooks and creeks that eventually feed into Lake Erie. <br /><br />The Department of Energy installed an “armor wall” in 2019 to slow down the erosion. Hameister says the wall was installed without public input, which she says was a violation of the legal agreement between the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes and the Department of Energy. She questions whether there might be other issues to which the public isn’t aware. <br /><br /><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Response by U.S. Department of Energy</strong> </span><em><strong>(5/8/2020) Brian Bower/West Valley Demonstration Project Director, DOE</strong></em> <br /><br />The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management is continuing to make safe and steady progress with decommissioning activities at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP). After successfully completing the solidification of 600,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) liquid into a highly durable glass material in 2006, the focus of the Project shifted to removing the old, highly contaminated reprocessing facilities and the facilities used in the solidification of the HLW. In 2018, DOE safely completed the demolition of the Vitrification Facility, a 50-foot tall, 10,000 square foot nuclear facility where the HLW was converted into glass. The demolition of the Vitrification Facility represented the largest and most complex demolition of a radioactively contaminated facility at the WVDP to date. Prior to that, the Department demolished the site’s 01-14 Building, a former building that treated processed off-gases from the Vitrification Facility and a number of support facilities. <br /><br />DOE is now preparing to embark on the demolition of the Main Plant Process Building (MPPB), the central facility used in the commercial spent nuclear fuel reprocessing operation. This facility is the largest and most contaminated building on the site. In preparing the MPPB for demolition, the Department of Energy removed a number of contaminated support facilities surrounding the MPPB, and completed extensive deactivation work inside the highly reinforced building before beginning the carefully planned, controlled and monitored demolition activity. The agency has also demolished over 40 additional site facilities and upgraded the site’s infrastructure to support the work, including the water supply, gas supply and distribution, electric service, and IT systems. <br /><br />Radiological, industrial, and environmental safety are foremost considerations in planning and executing demolition of the MPPB. The work planning process for the demolition of the MPPB brought to bear the extensive experience of the site’s workforce, industry best practices and lessons learned from the demolition of the Vitrification Facility and similar facilities across the country. Throughout the demolition work, onsite activities will be monitored and controlled in real-time to ensure worker, public and environmental safety. <br /><br />The Environmental Monitoring Program at the West Valley Demonstration Project has been part of the ongoing cleanup efforts since the beginning of the Project in 1982. The monitoring program includes sampling to evaluate the surface water, groundwater and air. Along with demolition air and radiation monitoring, on-site and off-site air, surface water, drinking water, sediment, soil, venison (deer), fish, milk, and food crop samples will be collected before, during, and after demolition. <br /><br />The goal of the extensive demolition activity air and radiation monitoring program is to detect any change in radiological conditions, so that work can be slowed, modified, or even stopped to protect employees, general public and the environment. The work is carefully planned and carried out such that all contamination is controlled within the boundaries of the demolition area. <br /><br />As DOE begins another important phase of the WVDP’s work at West Valley, we welcome all interested members of the public to attend our Quarterly Public Meetings and Citizen Task Force meetings to ask questions and hear about progress on this very important work. Site background information and all environmental information can also be found on the WVDP website at <a href="http://www.wv.doe.gov" title="http://www.wv.doe.gov">http://www.wv.doe.gov</a>.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Murphy, Kurt (WIVB-TV Graphic Arts Director)
Vetter, Tom (Editor)
Newberg, Rich (WIVB-TV Reporter)
D’Arrigo, Diane (Nuclear Information and Resource Service)
Resnikoff, Marvin (Nuclear Physicist)
Hameister, Joanne (The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes)
Vaughan, Ray (The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes)
Shepp, Amanda (Coordinator of Special Collections & Archives, SUNY Fredonia)
Pillittere, Joe (Communications Manager for West Valley contractor)
Bower, Brian (DOE Director for West Valley Demonstration Project)
Bembia, Paul (NYSERDA Director at West Valley)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1979 - 2020
Language
A language of the resource
eng
-
http://digital.buffalolib.org/files/original/e36cecc7f3a26e1bf056971cd986dbbc.mp4
114701f8a3560b236509020ecb7455a2
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Rich Newberg Reports Collection
Description
An account of the resource
This collection of long-form reports by retired WIVB-TV Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg covers a wide range of social issues, Buffalo history and the arts. Mr. Newberg retired from the Buffalo CBS network affiliate at the end of 2015, after serving the station for thirty-seven years in various roles including main anchor, reporter and documentarian. <br /><br />His New York Emmy Award winning pieces explore the abortion debate, care of the mentally ill, the African American struggle for civil rights, and the lessons of the Holocaust, among many topics. His video memoir, “One Reporter’s Journey, “ reflects on his forty-six year career, beginning as an advocate for those without a voice. <br /><br />"My hope," says Newberg, “is that this collection will provide a lasting chronicle of life and issues in Buffalo during the latter part of the 20th century and into the new millennium."
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Crisis at West Valley 1 : Overview
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Newberg, Rich (Reporter)
Description
An account of the resource
This series of reports deals with the challenges involved in cleaning up one of Western New York’s most toxic hot spots, located in West Valley, about thirty miles south of Buffalo. <br /><br />Initial projections for the cleanup of radioactive waste pegged costs at $235 million dollars. The project, it was thought, would take seventeen years to complete. By 2018 the amount spent totaled $2.3 billion dollars. The full cleanup price tag could be in the range of $10 billion dollars, according to earlier estimates by the U.S. Department of Energy. <br /><br />In 2020, forty years after the site was declared a National Demonstration Project, efforts were still underway to dismantle and remove the remaining contaminated buildings still standing on the site. Other efforts were focused on either dismantling and removing radioactive waste material from burial and storage areas or making them more secure. Environmental watchdog groups continue to raise serious questions about public safety and health.<br /><br />WIVB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Buffalo, closely covered the West Valley story and presented many reports that focused on the grassroots efforts that helped shape the massive cleanup project. The movement grew in intensity as New York State and the federal government considered proposals to accept more nuclear waste at the site. <br /><br />This overview is the first of five groups of television news reports, videos, and films documenting the political, economic, and social processes that led to a forty-year cleanup effort that is still in progress. The multi-billion-dollar undertaking continues to serve as a national demonstration project. <br /><br />The reports and summaries that follow are compiled by WIVB-TV senior correspondent (ret.) Rich Newberg. He played a major role in covering initial events as they unfolded in the early 1980s. <br /><br /><strong>Overview Summary: (1979 - 2020) </strong> <br /><br />1. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">The Nuclear Waste Challenge </span><br /><em>CBS report by Robert Schackne lays out the challenge: 1979</em><br />“Some 600,000 gallons of lethally radioactive liquid waste that must be disposed of by a technology that has never been developed.” <br /><br />2. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Migrating Radioactive Waste</span><br /><em>WIVB-TV report by Rich Newberg: 1982</em><br />Sand “lenses” in trenches containing low level nuclear waste provide paths for migration of contaminated rain water. Sierra Club issues a warning that the “flaky” bedrock is not a suitable barrier. <br /><br />3. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Lessons Learned the Hard Way</span><br /><em>Reports by WIS-TV, Columbia South Carolina: 1983 </em><br />Problems at West Valley lead to a rethinking of plans to activate a similar privately-owed nuclear reprocessing plant in Barnwell, South Carolina.<br /><br />4. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Who Would Accept Radioactive Waste?</span><br /><em>CBS report by Bill Curtis: 1982</em><br />The small Texas Town of Tulia considers accepting radioactive waste from sites such as West Valley. Tulia sits on top of one of the biggest salt beds in the country. Salt beds are one of three geological formations deemed suitable by the federal government to store radioactive waste. <br /><br />5. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">West Valley Chosen for a National Demonstration Project (1980)</span><br /><em>WIVB-TV Report by Allen Costantini: 1982</em><br />Ten years after Nuclear Fuel Services stopped operations at West Valley, control of the site is turned over to the state and federal governments and the Westinghouse Corporation. Westinghouse is the primary contractor hired to clean up the site at West Valley. The 600,000 gallons of high-level liquid waste is to be solidified into a glasslike substance and then moved to a secure storage outside of the region.<br /> <br />6. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Entering the First Radioactive Cell for Testing</span> <br /><em>WIVB-TV Report by Rich Newberg: 1983</em><br />Rich Newberg and photographer Jay Lauder cover the first tests conducted by Westinghouse experts inside a radioactive cell where uranium was extracted from spent fuel rods. The tests would help establish the best techniques for preparing the facility for the task of solidifying the high-level liquid radioactive waste. <br /><br />7. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Storing the High Level Radioactive Waste</span><br /><em>Video by CHBWV West Valley Decommissioning Team: 2015</em><br />The West Valley Demonstration project becomes the first site in U.S. history to place high level radioactive waste into long term outdoor storage. This video traces the history of the nation’s first and only commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant and the enormous task of cleaning up the waste it generated during its six year run, from 1966 to 1972. (see West Valley File 5 of 5 in this collection for present and future safety concerns.)<br /><br /><strong>Background</strong><br />West Valley is located In the Cattaraugus County Town of Ashford. It is here where Nuclear Fuel Services once served as the nation’s only commercial plant that reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods used to produce atomic energy. The rods contained plutonium and uranium which could be recovered for reuse. The first rods were delivered to the plant in 1966, but when federal regulations toughened, the costs were deemed too much to bare. The plant closed in 1972.<br /><br />The entire site initially became the responsibility of the state of New York. In 1961 the state had bought and leased 3,300 acres of West Valley land for atomic industrial use. The plant was first owned by a subsidiary of the W.R. Grace Company, which later sold the operation to Getty Oil. <br /><br /><strong>The Cleanup Challenge</strong><br />Hundreds of thousands of gallons of high-level radioactive liquid waste needed to be removed from underground steel storage tanks located on an eight-acre burial ground site. Another fifteen acres of burial land is also of major concern because it served as one of the nation’s six commercial burial grounds for radioactive waste. The material was buried in unlined soil trenches and included at least fourteen pounds of plutonium. Yet another burial site contained waste from the reprocessing operations at West Valley, including damaged irradiated fuel. This waste was buried in fifty-foot-deep holes. <br /><br />Environmental activists, scientists from the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professors from the University at Buffalo pointed out that the trenches were geologically unstable, and that ground water could be contaminated and migrate from the site. In addition, the area is situated on a fault line and is potentially susceptible to earthquakes. <br /><br />A group called The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes was formed in 1974. Some of its members specialized in technical aspects of radioactive waste disposal and health effects of radiation. The Coalition began putting pressure on the state and federal governments to have the West Valley site stabilized and cleaned up. It also fought against proposals to have additional nuclear waste material brought to the site for burial, incineration, other waste processing, or disposal. <br /><br />The Coalition played a major role in the creation of the West Valley Demonstration Project Act which was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. It gave the U.S. Department of Energy the responsibility to solidify the high-level waste. It also granted the D.O.E. the authority to address the issues involved in decontaminating and decommissioning the facilities. West Valley is believed to be the only radioactive waste site in the country with its own act of Congress. <br /><br />In 1982, the federal government took control of two hundred acres at the West Valley site, including the underground high level radioactive waste tanks, the high level waste burial grounds, and the contaminated buildings where nuclear fuel rods had been reprocessed. <br /><br />In 1985 Congress required states to assume responsibility for the storage and management of what it termed “low level” radioactive waste generated within their borders. Watchdog groups say much of this waste is “high level” and dangerous. At West Valley, New York State maintains control over the fifteen acres of “low level” burial grounds mentioned above. This area had closed in 1975 after radioactive water had filtered through an inadequate landfill cap and found its way into surrounding streams that eventually drain into Lake Erie.<br /><br />The greatest challenge to the federal government was finding a company that was capable of turning the liquid high level waste into a solid and more stable material for storage. Between 1996 and 2002, Westinghouse removed most of the high level liquid waste from the underground tanks and converted it into glass logs. It used a process known as vitrification. 275 intensely radioactive logs were formed and initially stored deep in the bowels of the reprocessing building, which helped provide shielding from the radioactivity.<br /><br />In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy selected the company that goes by the name CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley, LLC as its contractor. Its tasks were to secure the storage of the high-level waste and to demolish the closed radioactive buildings and the underground piping. <br /><br />In order to secure the storage of what came out of the underground tanks, 275 stainless steel canisters containing the vitrified waste were placed in steel-lined giant concrete storage casks, each weighing 87 1/2 tons.<br /><br />A 16,000 square foot reinforced concrete storage pad now holds 56 casks for what is termed “long term passive storage.” The casks are certified to hold the high-level waste for fifty years. Since there is no designated national repository for high level nuclear waste, the material must remain on the grounds of the West Valley site, at least for now.<br /><br />A coalition of radioactive waste experts and concerned citizens prevented more waste from coming into West Valley and has been providing oversight of cleanup efforts since the late 1970s. As final decisions for the site are expected to be made by 2022 or 2023, critical issues of health and safety continue to be raised by these citizen watchdogs. (See File 5 of 5 in this collection for detailed concerns involving air and water contamination.)<br /> <br />In May 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy said its Office of Environmental Management “is continuing to make safe and steady progress with decommissioning activities at the West Valley Demonstration Project. <br /><br />With regard to ongoing concerns by citizen watchdog groups, the DOE statement reads, “The goal of the extensive demolition activity air and radiation monitoring program is to detect any change in radiological conditions, so that work can be slowed, modified, or even stopped to protect employees, general public and the environment. The work is carefully planned and carried out such that all contamination is controlled within the boundaries of the demolition area. (See File 5 of 5 in this collection for the full statement by the U.S. Department of Energy.)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Murphy, Kurt (WIVB-TV Graphic Arts Director)
Vetter, Tom (Editor)
Schackne, Robert (CBS News Correspondent)
Roberts, John (WIS-TV Columbia, South Carolina)
Curtis, Bill (CBS News Morning Anchor)
Costantini, Allen (WIVB-TV Reporter)
Newberg, Rich (WIVB-TV Reporter)
Lauder, Jay (WIVB-TV Photographer)
D’Arrigo, Diane (Nuclear Information and Resource Service)
Resnikoff, Marvin (Nuclear Physicist)
Hameister, Joanne (The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes)
Vaughan, Ray (The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes)
Shepp, Amanda (Coordinator of Special Collections & Archives, SUNY Fredonia)
Pillittere, Joe (Communications Manager for West Valley contractor)
Bower, Brian (DOE Director for West Valley Demonstration Project)
Bembia, Paul (NYSERDA Director at West Valley)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1979 - 2020
Subject
The topic of the resource
Radioactive waste disposal in the ground -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Radioactive waste sites -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Reactor fuel reprocessing -- New York (State) -- West Valley
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Rich Newberg Reports Collection
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
WIVB (Television Station: Buffalo, N.Y.)
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
(publisher of digital)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright held by WIVB-TV. Access to this digital version provided by the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Videos or images in this collection are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the expressed written permission of WIVB-TV and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Users of this website are free to utilize material from this collection for non-commercial and educational purposes.
Relation
A related resource
Digital Collections of the B&ECPL
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
video/mp4
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Language
A language of the resource
eng