Book Description

As part of its ongoing West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP), and in accordance with the West Valley Demonstration Project Act and previous U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) decisions, DOE proposes to: (1) Continue onsite management of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) until it can be shipped for disposal to a geologic repository (assumed for the purposes of analysis to be the proposed Yucca Mountain Repository near Las Vegas, Nevada), (2) Ship low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and mixed (radioactive and hazardous) LLW offsite for disposal at DOE or other disposal sites, (3) Ship transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and (4) Actively manage the waste storage tanks. The waste volumes that are the subject of evaluation in this EIS include only those wastes that are either currently in storage or that would be generated over the next 10 years from ongoing operations and decontamination activities. This EIS analyzes activities that would occur during a 10-year period.