facilities are separately budgeted as Atomic Energy Defense

this activity.

Activities.) The facilities are grouped into 35 projects under This number increases by one for FY 1987 because the Department will assume the responsibility for decommissioning the Power Burst Facility in Idaho, formerly supported by the NRC. A long-range plan was completed in April 1985 to establish the overall schedule and priorities for sites currently in the surplus inventory. Priorities are established and work schedules are developed through analysis of public health and safety, legal, economic, and work continuity factors for each site. The Department's Richland (Washington) Operations Office has the lead role in implementing this program.

In FY 1985, the major onsite cleanup and upgrading of the interim storage cell was continued at the Niagara Falls Storage Site in Lewiston, New York. The remainder of the 4,000 cubic yards of residue stored in a 160-foot tower were transferred through a 3/4-mile pipeline and were excavated from the tower to a low concrete building at the waste storage area. The tower was demolished and the contaminated rubble was moved to the storage cell. A thick clay cap with a design life of greater than 25 years is being placed over the wastes to minimize water infiltration. Installation of this interim cap is scheduled for completion by the end of FY 1986. A Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the long-term management for this site is to be issued in FY 1986. In FY 1987, only surveillance and maintenance of the Lewiston site is planned. Since all offsite and onsite contamination will have been consolidated into the monitored and controlled storage cell, there will be no urgency from a health viewpoint to proceed with implementation of the long-term management option. This work will be deferred to use available funds for higher priority work.

Work on the decontamination of plutonium-contaminated facilities at Mound Laboratories will be continued in FY 1986 and FY 1987

and completed in FY 1988. This 11-year project was begun in 1978 and will continue through planned completion as a high priority.

Decommissioning of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station is

another major DOE project.

Following defueling of the reactor at

the end of FY 1984, physical dismantling of the plant began in FY 1985. Preparations for removal of major components were

begun, and some noncontaminated buildings were demolished. Dismantling of portions of the plant will continue in 1986 and 1987 and is scheduled to be completed in FY 1990.

Preparation

for the removal of the reactor pressure vessel will begin in FY 1987; the vessel is scheduled to be barged to the Department's Hanford Reservation near Richland, Washington, for disposal in FY 1989. The Department is cooperating with the NRC and EPRI in obtailing samples of the pressure vessel for aging studies. Other components will also be examined for this purpose. Department is participating in a Nuclear Energy Agency-sponsored international exchange of decommissioning technology, which includes Shippingport, West Valley, and eight significant projects in other member countries.

The

In FY 1985, the Department continued interim site maintenance and monitoring as well as engineering and planning for the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project in Missouri, a major DOE project. In addition, a Request for Proposals was issued for the remedial action project management contractor and a radiological characterization report for the Weldon Spring Quarry was completed. In 1986, field work for characterization (radiological, chemical and geological) of the Chemical Plant area will be initiated and will continue into FY 1987. Preparation of a draft EIS to be issued in 1986 is underway. Department's preferred alternative is stabilization of the wastes on site in a disposal cell designed to meet EPA requirements for the stabilization of uranium mill tailings. The project

The

management contractor has been selected and a DOE onsite project office will be established in FY 1986.

Conceptual design

engineering by the project management contractor will begin in FY 1986 and continue through 1987. The Final EIS and Record of Decision will be issued in FY 1987. Contractors will be mobilized on the site, using local area labor, and remedial action will be started in FY 1987. We estimate that remedial actions at the Weldon Spring site will be completed in FY 1995 and a final report issued by the end of FY 1996.

As previously mentioned, a new project will be added to the SFMP in FY 1987, decommissioning of the Power Burst Facility in Idaho. Current plans are to place the facility into an interim safe storage condition by initiating stabilization and fuel removal to dry storage in FY 1987. The facility is expected to be in a safe storage condition by the fourth quarter of FY 1988 or the first quarter of FY 1989. This condition will minimize surveillance and maintenance costs until funds are available for complete decommissioning, about 1993.

Other activities in FY 1987 will include continuation of site and facility disposition projects at Monticello, Utah; Santa Susana, California; the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Illinois; the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee; the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in Idaho; and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. Decommissioning of the

reactor at the Center for Energy and Environment Research (CEER) in Puerto Rico will begin in FY 1986. At Monticello, Utah, mill tailings will be removed from 12 residential properties, leaving only about 6 properties to be completed in FY 1988. The environmental assessment will be completed for the Monticello mill site in FY 1986 and work on the site will start in FY 1987. Decontamination of surplus facilities at the 350 Area of the

ANL-East complex will be completed in FY 1986 and preliminary activities started for the decommissioning of the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor.

WEST VALLEY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

The objective of the West Valley Demonstration Project is to demonstrate the solidification process for disposal of high-level liquid nuclear wastes under the provisions of Public Law 96-368, the West Valley Demonstration Project Act. An integrated production-scale development and demonstration project for treating high-level liquid nuclear wastes is being carried out at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, near West Valley.

Major activities being performed as part of this project include: (1) demonstration required to prepare existing facilities and equipment to accommodate the solidification project; (2) removal of wastes from underground storage tanks; (3) development, design, construction, and operation of systems and necessary supporting facilities for the solidification of the wastes;

(4) acquisition of containers for the permanent disposal of the solidified waste; (5) temporary storage and transportation of the solidified waste to an appropriate Federal repository for permanent disposal; (6) decontamination and decommissioning of the waste tanks, facilities, hardware, and material used in carrying out the project; and (7) disposal of low-level and transuranic wastes produced from project activities.

As the result of a detailed review, the estimate of total project costs through the waste solidification stage, excluding final decontamination and decommissioning of the facility, was reduced to $442.4 million in year of expenditure dollars. This is a decrease of approximately $30 million from the previous estimate.

Project activities in FY 1985 led to the accomplishment of the most challenging goal of the Project to date, the start of

verification testing of major subsystems of the Vitrification

System.

Individual testing of subsystems was completed in

FY 1985 allowing for the start of integrated testing of all major portions of the Vitrification System. Other accomplishments during this period included completion of cleanup of the first of several former reprocessing cells and initial testing of the overall system that will solidify low-level liquid wastes.

During FY 1986, the design of all systems necessary to convert the Component Test Stand into the final shielded Vitrification Facility will be well underway. Radioactive testing in a pilot

scale vitrification system using the West Valley formula for the high-level waste form will be conducted to support the development of operational procedures for the West Valley Vitrification Facility. The final design of the Supernatant Treatment System to pretreat and reduce the volume of the liquid high-level waste will be completed as well as the civil construction and procurement activities for this system. Installation of equipment for treating low-level liquid wastes before they are solidified in cement will be completed in FY 1986. Decontamination of needed shielded cells will be

continued to meet project needs.

The

In FY 1987, testing of the Vitrification System will concentrate on validation of process control techniques. In parallel, structural aspects of the conversion of the Component Test Stand into the final Vitrification Facility will be completed. Supernatant Treatment System will be installed and testing completed leading to the start of supernatant processing in mid-FY 1987. The supernate now stored in underground tanks represents nearly 90 percent of the volume and 50 percent of the radioactivity of the stored liquid waste. The separated radioactive material will be stored and later blended with the sludge from the storage tanks and glass formers prior to being