Stichting Laka

Publication Laka-library:
Secrecy, money, and deception: the attempt to site West Valley

Author	Don't Waste NY, Coalition West V.
Date
Classification	3.01.4.10/40 (UNITED STATES - WASTE - GENERAL)
Front

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

On June 25, 1991, legislators who remain anonymous introduced a bill in the 
New York State Legislature (S. 6283-A, A. 8748-A) that would change significant 
portions of the 1986 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Act and the 1990 
amendments to it. It would bypass 5 years of studies and recommendations by the
Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) Siting Commission, State agencies, the 
Interagency Task Force, concerned citizens, legislators, and the Governor regarding 
public participation in the siting process, the interim management of LLRW, 
independent technical review, the evaluation of alternative disposal methods, and 
the selection of a disposal method before a site. In place of the existing siting 
process it asks the Legislature to substitute the fast-track siting of West Valley, N.Y.

The West Valley bill is being portrayed as a quick fix to a complex, contentious 
problem. This study discusses West Valley's history and environmental suitability, 
the potential for interference with existing West Valley programs, the questions of 
who is served by this proposed legislation and who opposes bringing more LLRW 
to West Valley, the possibility that West Valley could become a regional or national 
facility, and related issues.

The study finds that:

1. Federal and state siting criteria will be difficult or impossible to meet at
West Valley.

2. It will be difficult or impossible to demonstrate that a new LLRW facility at
West Valley will not interfere with the West Valley Demonstration Project, and 
with the long term management of radioactive waste already on-site.

3. The abridged siting process proposed would deny Cattaraugus and Erie Counties
the legislated participation afforded Allegany and Cortland counties, contradict 
previous interim storage recommendations, be extremely vulnerable to legal 
challenges, and would invite a rerun of the public confrontations that halted the 
siting process in 1990.

4. The siting of a LLRW facility has regional impact, yet massive Western New York
regional opposition to a West Valley siting appears to go unnoticed in Albany.

5. If West Valley were to become one of the first operational LLRW management
facilities sited under the federal1985 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy 
Amendments Act, it would risk becoming a regional or national facility.

6. The proposed West Valley bill serves nuclear power interests at the expense
of public health and safety protection.

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