PROJECTS
RWMA has many years of experience in the radioactive waste management field. The projects listed below are a sample of the types of projects we have worked on. For a complete view of our expertise, please see publications, speaking engagements, and a detailed project list in About Us.
PRESENT PROJECTS
Radioactive landfills. On behalf of Niagara County, NY, cleanup of a contaminated radioactive waste storage facility. RWMA is assisting Niagara County in assessing radiation contamination at the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works site in Lewiston and the implications for expanding the adjacent CWM hazardous waste landfill. The Army Corps released a Remedial Investigation Report that shows extensive U and Ra contamination still remaining, more than 50 years after bomb-making materials were dumped on the property. New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is holding licensing hearings for expanding the CWM hazardous waste landfill.
Personal injury. On behalf of a welder of tank cars in Texas who died after being exposed to X-rays. On behalf of workers at a plutonium facility at Idaho National Laboratory where a release of plutonium occurred. On behalf of border guards at the Mexican border who were exposed to gamma radiation during inspections.
Nuclear transportation. On behalf of the State of Nevada, investigating the transportation to Yucca Mountain of a new generation of shipping casks. On behalf of public interest groups concerned about the transportation and storage of irradiated nuclear fuel in Texas and New Mexico. RWMA is assisting the State of Nevada on transportation issues regarding the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. We are investigating the consequences of sabotage and severe accidents involving transportation containers, such as potential land contamination and personal radiation injury.
The Department of Energy (DOE) released a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a new 300-mile rail route from Caliente, NV to the proposed repository, but hearings on the Yucca Mountain license application before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have been put on hold. Almost thirty years have passed since Congress directed DOE to place a repository in the State; Nevada has consistently opposed the plan. More recently, RWMA compared the release of radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor to our calculation involving a hypothetical transportation sabotage event. RWMA is also investigating the transportation and storage of high burnup nuclear fuel in Texas and New Mexico.
Decommissioning. As part of an arbitration dispute, RWMA is investigating the cost of decommissioning a production line that used strontium-90 in Germany.
Fracking Marcellus shale. RWMA has been assisting public interest groups in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio on the radiological environmental impact of fracking for and piping natural gas.
RECENT PROJECTS
Accident analysis on behalf of Beyond Nuclear and other public interest group re. Shipment of liquid high-level waste from Chalk River, Canada to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina.
Declaration on behalf of Rapid Ocean Response Corporation re. an accident analysis of ocean-going vessels carrying nuclear fuel.
Declaration on behalf of 2 workers in personal injury cases involving a plutonium accident at Idaho National Laboratory
Critique on behalf of Delaware Riverkeepers of a report by Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection on the radiological impact of fracking and NORM.
Review on behalf of public interest groups of the proposed Wadsworth compressor station on a natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania.
See Publications and About Us for more specific information on these projects.