MANAGEMENT OF PROJECTS

 

Since 1991, Attenuation Environmental Company (AEC) has managed many large, complex, and extended projects (and a few small ones too), all the while providing extraordinary client service, innovative environmental solutions, exceptional schedule flexibility and milestone fulfillment, and remarkable budget control. These projects include:

 

  • AEC currently provides complete and multifaceted technical evaluations of Decommissioning Funding Plans submitted to the Washington State Department of Health. This project includes a critical examination of all individual Funding Plans vis-à-vis the satisfaction of regulatory and engineering requirements for facility decontamination, dismantling, and/or decommissioning. The evaluations include an engineering and regulatory analysis of decontamination and decommissioning strategies, radiation survey methods, environmental characterization techniques, waste management practices, and appropriate decommissioning funding arrangements.

    • Client: Washington State Department of Health

     

  • AEC developed the specific requirements for the decontamination and decommissioning of several facilities at Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, and one facility at Battelle’s Sequim Laboratory. These boundaries were used to develop very detailed decontamination and decommissioning cost estimates for each facility. All of these requirements reflect those in the Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) published by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Energy. AEC is currently updating PNNL’s Decommissioning Funding Plan and its Decommissioning Cost Estimate.

    • Client: Battelle Memorial Institute/
    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

     

  • AEC managed the decommissioning of a radiologically contaminated research and development laboratory in Oregon. This project began with the development of an Expanded Preliminary Assessment, which included the preparation of the following plans: Sampling and Analysis Plan, Quality Assurance Plan, and Health and Safety Plan. Subsequently AEC modeled and documented a Radiological Performance Assessment as well as finalized a Decommissioning Funding Plan. AEC later managed the implementation of the Decommissioning Funding Plan, including interacting with state officials, overseeing the decommissioning contractor, evaluating and validating environmental data, and performing the complete final status facility survey. Analyses of the final decommissioning activities were successfully submitted to the State of Oregon, which accepted the analyses and terminated the laboratory’s radioactive materials license.

    • Client: Bend Research Inc.

     

  • AEC has also participated in several related projects, each associated with the environmental characterization of the commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal facility in Washington state. AEC’s respective clients were Landau Associates Inc., US Ecology Inc. (the facility’s operator), and the Washington State Departments of Health and Ecology. These projects comprised environmental sampling design, analytical data analysis, assessment, validation, and evaluation as well as investigatory recommendations for future campaigns. In addition, AEC served as a technical reviewer for the Environmental Impact Statement developed by the Washington State Department of Health for this site.

    • Clients: US Ecology Inc., Landau Associates Inc.,
    Washington State Departments of Ecology and Health

     

  • As AEC’s Project Manager, Ms. Minor has performed complex waste management audits of a mixed radioactive and hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility in Utah. These audits included site reconnaissance, records review, and regulatory analysis to assess and evaluate waste management methods.

Client: Envirocare of Utah Inc.
(now EnergySolutions)

 

  • AEC managed a comprehensive project related to hazardous, moderate-risk, and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste management, beginning with waste identification and designation, through waste treatment strategy development, and culminating with practice, plan, and procedure preparation, for a large western Washington private utility. This project included the development of the following documents: Operations Plan, Training Plan, and Closure Plan. All of these documents were integrated as a Solid Waste Handling Permit Application to construct and operate a moderate-risk waste management facility. The resulting permit was issued in record time.

Client: Puget Sound Energy

 

  • AEC also managed a multi-faceted, long-term project which addressed technical and regulatory environmental issues for a nuclear fuels fabricator in Washington state. These issues included the identification, designation, and classification of hazardous, dangerous, and mixed wastes as well as the development of corporate Pollution Prevention Plans, waste minimization strategies, and waste treatment environmental protocols. This project also included the performance of an extensive site assessment and historical facility reconnaissance; an evaluation of the facility's regulatory compliance; and the initial organization and preparation of an extensive Part B Permit Application, which included the development of individual Sampling and Analysis Plans for multiple waste streams, six surface impoundments, and a vast number of waste containers; evaluation of the facility's Training Curriculum, Emergency Response Program, and Closure Plan; and assistance with related environmental permitting concerns such as stormwater management as well as under- and above-ground storage tank management.

Client: Siemens Power Corporation
(now Areva NP Inc.)