DECONTAMINATION AND REMEDIATION

Qal-Tek Associates specializes in providing cost effective and innovative technical support for radiological characterization and remediation; License Termination Plans; Final Status Survey (FSS) planning, design, and implementation.

We are an industry leader in the engineering and application of specialty surface decontamination technologies and processes for various commercial, industrial and nuclear decommissioning applications. Our highly qualified, and experienced staff of regulatory and waste specialists are rounded out with Health physicists and radiological engineers and scientists to provide you with the highest quality and most compliant services.

Qal-Tek Associates is a leader in D&D and Waste Project Management because:

- We have years of extensive project experience in decommissioning to the Multi-Agency MARSSIMs criteria for all Federal and State agencies and private sector clients. Our high quality and comprehensive MARSSIMS final reports have been accepted and published by the EPA and DOE.

- We are fully licensed by the NRC as a Type A Broad Scope licensee to facilitate the possession, use, transport, packaging, and waste brokering of all types of radioactive materials, including NORM. Since 2000 we have processed and packaged over 10,000 sources of radioactive material for disposal and/or re-use in both the private and governmental sectors.

- We can provide the most comprehensive and complete services to satisfy multiple technical needs from all business sectors, from eliminating unwanted radioactive material to instituting complex decommissioning management programs for government agencies.

- We use state-of-the art detection and analytical equipment for the detection and characterization of radioactive contamination including:
- Floor monitors
- High sensitivity hand-held survey meters
- SPA-3 Na-I scintillation detectors
- Radon detectors
- Alpha analyzers
- Canberra ISOCs system

- We provide a comprehensive support package for decontamination and waste disposal activities that includes:
- Development of Work Plans and Site Specific Health and Safety Plans (SSHASP)
- Site investigation and profiling
- MARSIMMS compliant radiation surveys
- Decontamination
- Site restoration
- Waste characterization
- Source term calculations
- Sampling
- Waste profile preparation
- Waste repackaging
- Waste brokering

- We use a complete line of innovative surface decontamination and waste packaging technologies that have been proven successful in the nuclear industry since 1980. Our technology has successfully been used for critical work scopes in the nuclear weapons complex, commercial nuclear utilities, and various EPA, DOE, and DOD sites where strict controls are a prerequisite.

- We utilize decontamination equipment that offers a proven, dust-free process with built-in engineering controls that protect both the worker and the surrounding environment during the surface cleaning process. The technology offers a safe and environmentally friendly methodology that removes, collects and packages the waste in a single-step manner. Some of the equipment we utilize includes:
- Scalers
- Scabblers
- Needle Guns
- HEPA filtered vacuums
- WallWalkerT automated surface prep and painting system


- Our HEPA filtered vacuum recovery units satisfy the hazardous waste management needs of a broad range of industries and safely collect the hazardous dust and debris from the cleaning of nuclear cavities and reactors, elevated storage tanks, bridges, emission stacks, holding basins, as well as I-beams, doorways, and other structures of plants and public housing.



REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS

Canberra Inc. Sealed Source Disposal Project
Canberra Inc. had accumulated approx. 2500 sources of radioactive material over a period covering several decades. They were under a State mandate to dispose of this material and remediate the storage facility where the material had been stored. Qal-Tek Associates won the contract to prepare MARSSIMs compliant sampling and analysis plans, quality assurance project plans, hazardous waste determinations and waste profiling, source term calculations, waste tracking system database management, as well as waste packaging and shipping documentation. The project required diligent management and attention to properly characterize all of the source term and properly package the material. On completion, all radioactive sources were packaged, transported, and disposed of, and a MARSSIMs compliant Final Status Survey (FSS) was performed and accepted by the State of Connecticut.

U.S. EPA Remediation Project - Chino Airport - San Bernadino, CA
The EPA declared the aircraft Hangars located Building 676 as a Super Fund site due to its being used for the storage of approximately 5000 aircraft gauges containing Radium-226 (Ra-226). Radioactive contamination of the floor and wall areas was present and the EPA directed project required MARSSIMs compliant remediation of the facility. Qal-Tek Associates developed sampling and analysis plans and quality assurance project plans and then performed the hazardous waste determinations and profiling, source term calculations, area radiological profiling, MARSSIMs classification and identification of survey units, developed DCGL's, estimated the standard deviation of measurements in the survey units, performed the Final Status Survey (FSS), and then concluded the project by decontaminating the 12,000 ft2 facility and performing the waste repackaging in preparation for disposal. Our final MARSSIMS report was praised by the U.S. EPA as one of the finest and most comprehensive they had seen.

Dept. Of Energy (DOE) Idaho National Laboratory - Health Physics Instrument Laboratory
Qal-Tek Associates was contracted for the removal, packaging, transport, and removal of numerous mid to high level radioactive sealed sources that were previously used in calibration activities. Many of these were located in 20 ft. wells that required specialized engineered and designed equipment. Qal-Tek provided Work & Survey Plans and procedures, source term profiling, radiological control activities, Type B waste containment packaging, transport, and disposal activities to complete the project ahead of schedule and well below anticipated budget. We received praise from the Idaho DOE Office for the professionalism and efficiency exhibited in this project.