VIDEO: West Valley completes demolition of former nuclear reprocessing facility

According to EM, the project was the largest and most complex demolition of a radioactively contaminated site it has ever undertaken.

The five-storey, 35,100 sq ft facility had been used from 1966 to 1972 as a commercial plant for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

It processed around 640 metric tons of irradiated fuel and was contaminated with radioactive material, asbestos, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls.

Demolition of the Main Plant began in 2022 following two decades of preparatory work by EM and its cleanup contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley. The structure was taken down in more than 70 sections over the course of the project.

“Thanks to hard work and dedication, West Valley reduced radioactivity in the building by over 98 percent, removed more than 7 miles of contaminated piping and disposed of over 50 tons of contaminated equipment, all while working safely and compliantly in alignment with EM’s mission, on time and under budget by over US$30 million,” said EM Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Roger Jarrell.

Stephen Bousquet, assistant director of project management at WVDP, said: “Our workforce was deliberate in the planning, deactivation and execution of this work. Every effort has been made to implement robust work controls to help protect the workforce, the public and the environment.”

Work is now under way to install a protective cover over the footprint where the Main Plant previously stood.