Radiological and Environmental Services
Lucas provides radiological safety, radiological materials handling and waste disposal expertise for the remediation of radiologically contaminated sites. We additionally provide a broad spectrum of environmental services in support for environmental cleanup/restoration and long-term land stewardship projects.
Environmental Services
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Environmental compliance reviews
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Environmental documentation preparation
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Reviewing and compiling historical site records
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Site characterization
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Conduct surveys for special status species, and
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Establishing effective and appropriate mitigation measures
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Long term stewardship program support
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Ecological and biological surveys
Radiological Services
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Facility and site surveying, characterization, and assessment
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Shielding and exposure pathway modeling
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Waste brokerage and radiation health physics services
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Characterizing the waste
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Determining path forward for wastes
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Identifying and configuring the appropriate package for transport
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Arranging for ensuring compliant transportation
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Risk Assessment
Projects
Transportation of Radioactive Waste Components to Disposal
This project involved the loading and transport of three large radioactive waste packages stored at the West Valley Disposal Project (WVDP) in West Valley, NY to the Waste Control Specialist (WCS) disposal site near Andrews, TX.
Lucas was responsible for the development of the Transportation Plan, the Transportation Emergency Response Plan, and providing radiological safety during transload operations. We were additionally responsible for on-site operations at the Southern Buffalo rail yard during package transload from heavy haul road equipment to rail.
Environmental Services Support - WCH Hanford
Since 2012 Lucas provided professional natural resources support personnel to Washington Closure Hanford (WCH) in support of the River Corridor Project contract with the Department of Energy.
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Natural resources work activities include:
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Migratory bird surveys to ensure compliance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
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Plant surveys of project areas revegetated after completion of remediation to assess success of revegetation areas.
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Review of proposed project areas using natural resource Geographic Information System (GIS) layers (e.g., rare plants/habitats, burrowing owl dens, eagle roosting areas) to determine if any resources are potentially affected.
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Construction of artificial snake hibernacula’s to mitigate for habitat loss during remediation activities.
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Assessment of structures for presence of bats using visual (includes infrared video recording), acoustic recording/analysis, genetics, and mist-netting methods. Mitigation projects include installation of new roosting structures (e.g., bat boxes and cinder block bat tower).
Hanford River Corridor Project - Waste Services, Health Physics, and Environmental Sciences Support
Lucas provided radiological support services to the Hanford River Corridor Project for the Department of Energy.
This support has included:
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Health Physics
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Industrial Hygiene
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Waste Designators
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Waste Shippers
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Waste Transportation Specialists
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Waste Handling Specialists
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Environmental Biologists
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Database management specialists
Specific activities include:
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Waste characterization, classification, transportation, and disposal
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Preparing Hanford Transportation Safety Document (TSD) Special Packaging Authorization (SPA) checklists
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Review and approval of subcontractor worker health and safety plans
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Health and Safety oversight of WHC remediation subcontractor field activities
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Performing waste packaging calculations; ensuring packaging selection is in accordance with DOT and/or Hanford TSD.
Hanford Long-Term Stewardship Program Support
Since 2021 Lucas has been supporting the Hanford Site Long-Term Land Stewardship Program. This support has included:
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Land Management – This has included acquisition records mapping, Land Stewardship program support, annual site population forecasts, land transition support, records management.
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Borrow Pit Management – Provided management support for the use of the Hanford Site Borrow Pit.
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Post Site Cleanup Surveillance and Maintenance – Our support has included ecological and biological surveys, historical and cultural surveys, endangered and protected species habitat management, waste site assessments, site boundary management and signage support, GIS mapping services.
