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TONAWANDA NUCLEAR SITE INFO

" Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. [1953] We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. " [1961] ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

WNY NUCLEAR DUMPS

West Valley nuclear waste site

A new independent West Valley study shows nuclear waste removal to be the safest and the least costly long-term management option, yet DOE and NYS commence new onsite erosion-control band-aids All attempts to control erosion in this steep glacial till valley will inevitably fail, a fact highlighted by the excursionary weather events of August 2009; see August 2009 storm event photos and storm description. The ensuing discharge of wastes will poison the downstream water supplies of Cattaraugus Creek, Lake Erie, the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. Excavation and removal of all the radioactive wastes, including the two burial grounds, the tanks, and the lagoons, from the West Valley, NY nuclear site is both the safest and the least costly long-term management option for New Yorkers, according to a State-sponsored study by independent experts. This physically most unsuitable waste storage location would never have been selected under the subsequent radioactive waste facility siting regulations (10 CFR Part 61). Given these new independent findings it remains to be seen if voters can muster the leadership necessary to reverse Albany's foolhardy acceptance of the federal Department of Energy's onsite waste management plan for West Valley. May 2008 photo of the Buttermilk Creek "big slide"  The DOE and irresponsible site owner NYSERDA (the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, a public authority corporation of New York State) are proceeding down the same irrational path at West Valley as was taken at the Niagara Falls Storage Site: applying onsite "interim action" band-aids in a shortsighted, attempt to contain huge quantities of long-lived, dangerous radioactive wastes buried in the ground at an unsuitable physical location, this time at a uniquely unsuitable location on a rapidly eroding small plateau within a steep, unconsolidated glacial till filled valley that drains via Cattaraugus Creek into Lake Erie, an irrepleaceable freshwater resource. For many years, New York State and federal DOE officials have backed indefinite onsite management of West Valley's wastes, not because it will save money and avoid environmental disaster in the long term, but simply because it is less costly in current budget years. Public expectation that the "Change We Can Believe In" Obama Administration would bring rigorous, scientific decision-making to DOE activities has not been realized. The Obama Administration has spent a trillion public dollars to bail out the ersatz investment scams of corrupt investment bankers, but it won't make the smart, short-term outlays required to implement cost-effective, long-term-protective waste management strategies at DOE's large nuclear waste sites. West Valley is threatening to come apart at the seams and contaminate precious Great Lakes drinking water supplies, but apparently a calculation has been made in both Albany and Washington that no immediate political harm will result from the continuation of DOE's unsound and failing nuclear waste management practices. And so, in this latest, 2008 DEIS, the DOE and NYSERDA call for the long-overdue (1987 court-ordered), site-wide waste disposition decision (NEPA ROD) at West Valley, NY to be delayed thirty more years, proposing instead a NEPA-illegitimate (i.e. non-sitewide) "phased decision making" alternative that would continue to implement DOE and NYSERDA's onsite waste management plans through more "interim actions," including the NDA and North Plateau slurry walls, tank drying, and plastic covers over the burial grounds. This proposed alternative, widely regarded as a de facto final onsite waste management decision, violates the purpose and intent of NEPA because it does not provide the required final site-wide waste disposition decision for the majority of the site's wastes before significant public monies are spent. It is simply a prologue to a future CERCLA ("Superfund") morass, following in the pattern of the NFSS and Tonawanda, and represents a colossal failure of State leadership that even surpasses the original siting blunder of a naive Nelson Rockefeller. Such a fundamental violation of the purposes of NEPA would again result in State and federal governments throwing away public money, this time in the billions, trying to maintain waste isolation at this untenable location. The DOE employed the same NEPA-evasion strategy at the Niagara Falls Storage Site in the 1980s, squandering tens of millions on a faulty "interim" tumulus that otherwise would never have been sited, see a detailed description of the NFSS story; and in 1997 Congress transferred remediation of the the Tonawanda Manhattan Project site to the Army Corps of Engineers and called for the use of CERCLA, to replace the much more stringent NRC regulatory framework. post-August 2009 storms photo of the Buttermilk Creek "big slide"  The Spitzer administration did not offer to join the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes in its unsuccessful 2005 complaint against DOE for completion of the legitimate 1996 NEPA site-wide cleanup process and decision at West Valley. Instead the State joined DOE's "Core Team" and secretly planned this NEPA-illegitimate "interim end state" proposal which addresses only a fraction of the site's wastes. The unwise recent federal appeals court decision denying the Coalition's claim means that the DOE/NYSERDA-preferred "non-decision" alternative may proceed while the the legitimate 1987-court-ordered NEPA site-wide public review process is now at the whim of DOE and NYSERDA, an unconscionable situation for long-time public interest stakeholders. A 2006 lawsuit brought by NYS/NYSDEC/NYSERDA against the DOE was subsequently submitted to mediation and after six secret negotiating sessions between NYS and DOE a settlement was reached in June 2009 and set down in a Consent Decree. The terms of this consent decree, released by the Buffalo office of the NYS Attorney General at the end of October, clearly constitute waste management decision-making. These decisions were made in secret and were withheld from the public until after the September 8, 2009 close of the comment period on the 2008 DEIS, thereby violating both NYS public administration law and proper NEPA process. The settlement agreement assigns onsite waste management responsibilities and apportions cost splits for future "remedy actions" under CERCLA. On September 5, 2009, three days before the close of the comment period on the 2008 DEIS, NYSERDA's project director revealed to the Coalition that transfer of control over "a portion of the [WVDPA] Project Premises on the north and east sides of the SDA to NYSERDA" is being negotiated with DOE prior to the decommissioning of the West Valley Demonstration Project in order to perform recently started knickpoint erosion control work on Erdman Brook, to establish "an erosion control buffer area for the SDA ... and to meet a requirement of NYSERDA's 6 NYCRR Part 380 Permit for the SDA." He further noted that "DOE and NYSERDA are working to develop and document a mutually agreeable cost split for this work." This pre-DEIS-decision onsite erosion control work, no doubt hastened by the August storms event, clearly implements some details of the DEIS's "phased decision making" alternative. Did the appeals court examine the details of the NYSERDA/DOE "tentative" settlement agreement prior to making its August 31, 2009 ruling denying the Coalition's complaint that asked for a legitimate NEPA site-wide waste decision after 22 years of process? A safe, fiscally sound outcome at the West Valley site requires New York State government to take the following actions: NYS should not settle its lawsuit, but instead should engage expert counsel to vigorously pursue its legitimate causes for action against the DOE. NYS Attorney General Cuomo should give priority to necessary actions to ensure the prompt completion of the legitimate site-wide NEPA process that began in 1987 and culminated in the release of the 1996 site-wide DEIS, and to assure compliance with the letter of the 1980 West Valley Demonstration Project Act including: 1) injunctions to stop illegal onsite waste management "interim actions" being conducted by DOE before the legitimate NEPA site-wide review process Record of Decision (ROD) is issued; this NEPA site-wide ROD should have been issued over ten years ago; 2) a declaration that DOE is responsible for exhumation of the high-level waste tanks, the NRC-licensed Disposal Area (NDA) and the federally-sourced materials in the State Disposal Area (SDA), as well as removal of the process buildings and underlying contaminated soils; and 3) a declaration that the NRC must not apply the generic-EIS-supported, 1997 10 CFR Part 20 Subpart E (the so-called "License Termination Rule" or "LTR") to evaluate DOE's decommisioning plan for the WVDP Premises, but instead must perform a site-specific EIS to fulfill its main WVDPA task: the prescribing of West Valley site-specific cleanup criteria (see this discussion). The Paterson Administration should demonstrate its understanding of the near-term threat that West Valley's wastes and site conditions pose to the regional watershed by promptly declaring that the burial grounds and HLW tanks must be exhumed, even if that means a substantial share of the cost of SDA exhumation is borne by New Yorkers and bonding of the project is required. March 27, 2008 letter from Jim Rauch to former West Valley Coalition leader Ray Vaughan Reply from Vaughan (answering machine message, large .WAV file) WEST VALLEY COALITION PRESS RELEASE ON THE DOE ROD AND THE NYS FINDINGS STATEMENT THE WEST VALLEY COALITION'S COMMENTS ON THE CERCLA CONSENT DECREE Attachment 1, Email to Jim Rauch from David Munro, November 23, 2009 Attachment 2, EPA ltr to DOE West Valley Project Mgr. Bower, Sept. 1, 2009 Attachment 3, DEC General Counsel J Eckls reply to J Rauch, May 7, 2008 THE WEST VALLEY COALITION'S COMMENTS ON THE 2008 DEIS FACTS' Comments on the 2008 West Valley DEIS SUMMARY OF EXCURSIONARY AUGUST 2009 STORM EVENTS PHOTOS OF ONSITE EROSION RESULTING FROM EXCURSIONARY AUGUST 2009 STORM EVENTS PHOTOS OF OFFSITE EROSION IN THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY OF THE WEST VALLEY SITE PHOTOS OF PREVIOUS EROSION ON THE WEST VALLEY SITE Background West Valley, NY Nuclear Waste Site aerial photo West Valley Nuclear Site aerial photo with facilities and creeks identified Interactive Mapquest site location aerial photo/road map NYSERDA settles its lawsuit against DOE, but withholds the details Public overwhelmingly calls for full waste removal

Evaluation of the West Valley Remediation Act bill

Appalling irresponsibility by NY's Democrat US Senators: July 2003, Schumer introduced the site transfer "study" bill; 9/30/05, Presidential-aspirant Clinton and Schumer introduced S.1806, the Pataki administration's WVRA bill, in the Senate. Representative Kuhl first introduced the WVRA bill in 2005. Ignoring the opposition of over 40 citizens' groups, Senators Schumer and Clinton subsequently re-introduced the WVRA bill in the 110th Congress.

Comments on the 1996 West Valley sitewide closure draft EIS
Great Lakes United resolution on West Valley Nuclear Wastes

West Valley workers seek EEOICPA compensation for cancers
Former West Valley operator, Nuclear Fuel Services, has near-criticality spill
New firm to wrap up DOE operations at West Valley
Safety lapses result of contractor's rush to pocket acceleration bonuses

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Niagara Falls Storage Site

A Long History of Poor Decisions Blatant violations of NEPA are highlighted in a 1994 ROLE letter; also see DEC's comments on the 1984 DEIS (note comments 4-7, and 9-22), and officials' recommendations for management of the K-65 residues. *update* Scoping comments on USACE's Building 401 proposal DOE's 1986 'interim' waste tumulus said to be leaking Legislative Mismanagement of K-65 Residues IEER report slams DOE mismanagement of K-65 residues CWM radiation survey disputed Army will not form new group; Rauch letter; Army plan met by unified local government resistance. 1994 walkover survey of the NFSS vicinity

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Tonawanda Nuclear Site

Sixty-five years ago U.S. President Harry Truman gave the order to use two atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This turning point in human history is well known to virtually all Americans and most of mankind. (For a revealing discussion of the little-known targeting details see an article from the May 2003 issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.) Yet until recently, few American citizens were aware of the extensive harm done here at home by Manhattan Project operations and the subsequent massive "Cold War" atomic weapons buildup. The health and lives of tens of thousands of unsuspecting workers and their families were sacrificed. Dozens of communities where production facilities were located were carelessly contaminated with radioactive materials and wastes, and still remain so. These Poisoned Workers & Poisoned Places are casualties of a Cold War that had no winners. Tonawanda, NY is one of these "legacy" communities. Today, some of its citizens are fighting with their own government to rectify past worker wrongs and to correct inadequate Army cleanup actions at the contaminated properties. These pages are dedicated to advancing this struggle.

Mushroom cloud from "Little Boy", much of the Hiroshima bomb's uranium was refined at Tonawanda, NY

TONAWANDA SITE FUNDAMENTALS

*Seaway* CURRENT UPDATES

LIBRARY

ENERGY EMPLOYEES COMPENSATION PROGRAM

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Did you know?:
Even as the USA and other countries start a new round of nuclear reactor construction, Eastern scientists have revealed the true extent of mortality and morbidity resulting from the meltdown of the reactor at Chernobly 24 years ago. See a report on the new book published by the New York Academy of Sciences.

Atmospheric A-bomb testing in Nevada during the 1950s released approximately 150 million Curies of iodine-131. Downwind fallout heavily contaminated much of the U.S. milk supply with I-131 and strontium-90; New York State was one of the more affected areas. ... more

The most recent report of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR VII) finally has confirmed what independent experts have been saying for many years: the dose-effect relationship is linear right down to zero dose, i.e. there is no safe dose of ionizing radiation below which cancer effects are not seen. The report states that 10 rems (100 mSv) of ionizing radiation, which is roughly the lifetime exposure to the average level of unavoidable background radiation (100 mrem/year), produces a cancer rate of 1 cancer in 100 people so exposed. Further, inheritable mutations produced in egg and sperm cells, which occurs in animal models, also occurs in humans. The report advises that individuals who have received whole body CT scans (several rems) should be followed for health effects.

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LEGISLATIVE WATCH > NYS starts nuclear cleanup rulemaking > West Valley transfer to feds opposed > High-level waste declassified > High-level K-65 Residues misclassified

NUCLEAR WASTE NEWS > Obama stops Yucca Mtn permanently > 2-faced Obama keeps "Bomb-plex" going > Texas approves WCS's huge LLRW dump > NRC finalizes dilution as 'solution'

WAR ON IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN > "Collateral murder" in Baghdad > "Bliar" faces Chilcot Iraq War inquiry > Obama not honoring his Iraq pullout pledge > Obama: Gitmo prison to close, eventually

INFORMATION FOR VOTERS > Financial reform act: a very bad joke > On Obama's watch: Big Oil runs amok > "Hey Big Banks - Less Bail, More Jail" > Democrats commit health-care suicide

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Cost of the War in Iraq

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more details at National Priorities Project

The Bush/Blair > Brown/Obama war has destabilized the entire region;
Over 4400 US soldiers and 700,000 Iraqis killed in an illegal war.
A 1994 Cheney video: Cheney/Bush 41 reasons not to invade Iraq.
A true democrat spells out Bush's responsibility for the war.
Back at home, the Bush Administration is caught trying to limit atomic worker compensation payments.

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About TNSI

Last updated July 22, 2010

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