TheCoalition Crier
The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes
June 18, 2000

What should be done with the radioactive waste at West Valley?

Should it go or should it stay?

PUBLIC MEETING

JULY 17

Concord Town Hall, Franklin Street, Springville, NY 7pm

Questions answered, comments welcome

Vitrification of the liquid high level waste has been successfully completed at West Valley and is awaiting removal to a federal site. Now decisions about how the site should be cleaned up and closed will be made by the DOE.

People need to start looking at the alternatives because they have a voice in that decision. The Environmental Impact Study will be complete in December, 2003 at which time the DOE will ask for public comments before it makes its decision.

We believe the choice should be made by the people who will live here. Understanding the alternatives does not require technical knowledge. The decision could affect the whole of western New York and could set a precedent for other sites in the country.

The radioactive wastes should be exhumed, packaged and shipped to a less vulnerable site. A serious erosion problem makes West Valley an unsuitable site for disposal of nuclear waste.

DOE’s preferred alternative would be to stabilize the process building, the burial grounds, and the high level waste tanks with concrete or grout. This action would be irreversible and the site would require monitoring for thousands of years. Such monitoring would inevitably fail through lack of memory or lack of funding. The waste will leak out eventually, contaminating the Cattaraugus Creek watershed, including Lake Erie.

The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes

10734 Sharp Street, East Concord, NY 14055

716-941-3168 mongerson107@earthlink.net