The cleanup and decontamination of the Western New York Nuclear Service Center at West Valley [1] is taking far too long, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. [2]

The Western New York Nuclear Service Center is 30 miles south of Buffalo.A DEC report concludes that inadequate federal funding is to blame. In 1987 an agreement was signed by the federal government, the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes [3] and the Radioactive Waste Campaign. It mandated completion of a final environmental impact statement to help determine the clean up process. But that step has yet to be completed -- more than two decades later.

The DEC report found that with a minimum commitment of $95 million per year for a decade, significant cleanup progress would be attainable, yet the 2008 federal budget allocates just $57.6 million for West Valley.

The 3,345-acre site -- located about 30 miles south of Buffalo and 20 miles upstream from the Cattaraugus Reservation of the Seneca Nation -- was the only private commercial facility for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel in the U.S.

Nuclear Fuel Services Inc ran the facility from 1966-1975 when it closed leaving multiple buildings, lagoons, disposal areas, contaminated soil, 600,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste, and a still-migrating plume of radioactive groundwater.