Two Richland, Wash.-based contractors serving the Energy Department and other federal clients have formed a joint venture to promote a material sorting technology that will be shown off this week.
The two small businesses, Federal Engineers & Constructors (FE&C) and ISO-Pacific Remediation Technologies, said Sept. 19 the venture, Innovative Remediation & Integrated Systems LLC (IRIS), will promote commercial use of their technology to minimize waste streams at environmental remediation sites.
The joint venture is planning a full-scale demonstration of the technology Tuesday through Thursday in Richland.
The IRIS joint venture said in a fact sheet its technology uses 3-D mapping to provide a “focused excavation” of contaminants in buildings and soils, which significantly reduces “disposal of high volumes of clean soil.” The sorting technology uses the advanced mapping, 100 percent assay of all materials and soil, and “directed” demolition and excavation to reduce waste volumes from 50 to 70 percent, according to IRIS.
The technology “eliminates high cost of burying low or no contaminated soil,” it said. Most soil remediation and waste disposal jobs like those at DOE’s Hanford Site is based on gross excavation rather than focused excavation, according to IRIS.
Both joint venture partners have more than a decade of experience serving clients including the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Navy, IRIS Program Manager John Reilly said in a press release.
ISO-Pacific specializes in technology development for environmental cleanup, while FE&C has more than 17 years of experience in demolition and excavation of hazardous structures, the IRIS news release said.
In September 2017, Federal Engineers & Constructors paid $2 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act in connection with small business subcontracts. The company did not admit wrongdoing in the case.
The firms say their S3 material sorter and elemental analyzer laser equipment is licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
