Locus Wins Over a Dozen New Greenhouse Gas Verification Contracts

Locus takes the lead in GHG verification services for California Air Resources Board

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., August 16, 2010 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, has been selected for over a dozen new greenhouse gases (GHG) verification services contracts.

The GHG verification services cover facilities in California that are regulated by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Locus is accredited as a verification body through CARB and has Lead Verifiers certified in all reporting sectors, including cement plants, refineries, and electrical transactions. As a part of these contracts, Locus Lead Verifiers will perform mandatory verification of CO2 emissions at selected California facilities. While verification is a requirement this year through AB32, companies are also using 3rd party verification to promote their brands and the accuracy of their emissions information.

The new GHG verification contracts include the following companies: Ameresco, Cardinal Cogen Inc., City of Oxnard, DG Fairhaven Power LLC. (owned by Marubeni Corporation), General Chemical, Lehigh Southwest Cement, Monterey Regional Waste Management District, Roseburg Forest Products, SRI International Cogen (operated and managed by International Power Technology Inc.), United Airlines, and US Pipe & Foundry. Several of the new awarded contracts cover multiple facilities.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by so many well-recognized firms for GHG verification services. Locus continues to expand its carbon practice at a rapid pace. Coupled with our carbon software services and domain expertise in all three key AB 32 reporting sectors in California including cement, refineries, and electrical transactions, Locus is becoming a partner of choice for all companies wishing to be credible in their carbon reporting needs.” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

Locus Introduces Worldwide Accreditation of Analytical Laboratories Electronic Data Delivery

Locus Introduces Worldwide Accreditation of Analytical Laboratories Electronic Data Delivery

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 28, 2010 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, has introduced an accreditation process for analytical laboratories to deliver analytical data into Locus’ award winning, cloud-based Environmental Information Management (EIM) system. A growing need exists for a standardized format for transmitting environmental electronic data. There are more than 15 different standards in use in the U.S. alone, most of which are antiquated. Standards in the rest of the world also lack consistency leading to increased processing costs by all consumers of analytical data. The Locus EDD accreditation process is intended to help industry and analytical laboratories drive standards, consolidation, and ultimately, the creation of error-free defendable datasets.

The formal process includes the generation and upload of test EDDs to ensure that each Laboratory Information Management System or LIMS can deliver data according to Locus EIM and customer requirements. This testing is followed up by a training session that covers how to upload EDDs into EIM and resolve common errors that may be automatically flagged as the EDDs are evaluated for errors. The objective of the accreditation process is to have laboratories gain the necessary experience and expertise to routinely deliver error-free submittals of analytical results to EIM, thus allowing the data to become actionable and consumed by consultants and site owners almost immediately.

There is a nominal accreditation processing fee and annual renewal that is easily recovered through gained efficiency. Laboratories that would like to become accredited and meet certain criteria can apply at Locus’ web site. The accreditation process may take up to 90 days. Once accredited, the labs are added to the list of accredited labs on the Locus web site. During the initial round, Locus accredited the following laboratories: US: TestAmerica (TN and CA), Accutest (NJ and MA), Calscience (CA), Lancaster Labs (PA), Columbia Analytical, Air Toxics, BC Laboratories, Del Mar Analytical, Merit Labs, Xenco Labs, and Oilfield Environmental and Compliance, Inc; Worldwide: Maxxam, Canada; BMG Engineering, Switzerland, ALS Environmental, Australia, Wessling Laboratory, France, Eurofins (Analytis), Germany, CHELAB s.r.l., Italy, LAV s.r.l., Italy, Analytico Milieu n.v., Netherlands, Pace Labs, Puerto Rico, and Pro Analysis, Argentina.

In 2007 Locus introduced a set of standard Electronic Data Deliverable (EDD) formats for the reporting of environmental laboratory analytical data. Since that time, Locus has witnessed exponential growth in the number of EDDs submitted from the laboratories directly into the company’s flagship product, EIM™. Locus customers, analytical laboratories, and consulting companies have benefited from the standardized format and automated workflow process for transmitting EDDs directly into EIM via the web, bypassing the manual email-based approach, thus significantly reducing processing and rework costs.

The contents and flexibility of the Locus EDD formats permit data to be validated on arrival into EIM to EPA’s Level II, if a customer so desires. Locus envisions its formats to be transitional for the companies and laboratories that are not yet ready to adopt XML-based technology, but are tired of dealing with multiple and antiquated file formats, which only serve to increase costs. In addition, some of the old format “standards” suffer from the requirement that data be submitted in multiple files, while other formats have antiquated requirements related to field lengths or valid values that originated at a time when hard disk space was at a premium. Locus’ EDDs eliminate these requirements.

“Locus believes that the promulgation of a standardized single-file format will allow laboratories to reduce the costs of creating EDDs, minimize errors in the transmission and reporting of data, and more quickly support new EIM clients while reducing processing costs,” said Locus’ president and CEO, Neno Duplan.

TestAmerica President and CEO Rachel Brydon Jannetta offered, “Our clients are acutely focused on data management and deliverables challenges and it is key to our mission to provide solutions in this regard. Whenever we can work with a firm such as Locus to enhance the link from the lab data to environmental decision making, we know we have added value to our client’s objectives.”

“As the leader in environmental data management software, Locus strives to provide guidance, direction, and endorsement to the best ideas in an effort to standardize data management processes. Such efforts are sorely needed in an industry that is experiencing explosive growth in the volume of analytical testing. Currently, there are more than 15 different standards for analytical data submittals, and this needs to change. We believe that the standards that Locus has introduced and that much of the industry now follows, coupled with our accreditation program, will help drive greater uniformity, lower overall costs, and lead to better and faster reporting of environmental data,” added Neno Duplan.

Locus’ flexible EDD processing tool will continue to support all major regulatory driven standards such as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) based Staged Electronic Data Deliverable (SEDD) format and the State of California’s Water Resources Control Board AB2886 reporting requirements also known as EDF.

 

ABOUT TESTAMERICA
TestAmerica is the leading environmental testing firm in the United States, including 36 laboratories and 33 service centers. TestAmerica provides innovative technical expertise and comprehensive analytical testing services. Specialty analyses include source and ambient air, aquatic toxicity, explosives, specialty organics, dioxins, drinking water, sediments and tissues, emerging contaminants, radiochemistry and mixed waste testing.

For more information, visit www.testamericainc.com or contact Mr. James H. Miller, Vice President, at 716.691.2600

SJ Business Journal Business Profile: Locus Technologies helps manage clients’ environmental footprint

The company says its flagship product, Environmental Information Management, is the world’s largest commercial, on-demand environmental data management system.

Environmental Consultants Beginning to Share with Clients Control of Corporate Environmental Data

Closed ‘consultant-centric’ model giving way to open ‘cloud’ computing

by Neno Duplan, CEO of Locus Technologies

Environmental consultants are cleaning up…literally.

As they go about the lengthy, tedious, expensive and very often dirty job of decontaminating polluted industrial sites, environmental consultants bill their clients by the hour, capturing…and then completely controlling…the superabundance of project-related environmental data that underlies remediation strategies.

As a result of this process, a “consultant-centric model” has dominated the field of corporate environmental data management.  This is primarily because environmental data is not integral to the daily functioning of a company, and because the quantities and complexities of the data produced are enormous.  So company managers are generally quite comfortable with letting their consultants do all the querying, analysis, reporting…and then storing the data.

And since the consultants derive increased billing hours from controlling their clients’ data, the ultimate incentive for them is a renewed or extended contract, an outcome which, though certainly not guaranteed, is optimized by their control of the data.

But change is coming.  The environmental data management practices of corporations and their consultants are undergoing a profound transformation as new Web-based software provides a low-cost means of making available the critical information that organizational decision makers need not only to better understand and manage their overall environmental liabilities but also to improve their operations by analyzing the valuable data.  While environmental data is collected primarily for compliance reporting, when mined with the right tools it can also be used to point to weaknesses in data gathering and processing operations and provide valuable information on how to eliminate or reduce these.

A new “company-centric” environmental data management model now offers a remote data repository situated in the Internet “Cloud” and equally accessible in real time to all, including both the client and its consultants.

 

Polluters Pay… and Pay Again

Business and industry pay well for the services of experienced, knowledgeable specialists who can help with the job of abating the damage done to a massively polluted environment.  According to the EPA and some state agencies, there are more than two million contaminated sites in the U.S. alone. Among the major sources of widespread water pollution are the effluents and contaminants emitted by industry into the water bodies—lakes, rivers, reservoirs, aquifers—that are the source of all our drinking, cooking and bathing water.

In an effort to stem the tide of environmental deterioration — or at least compel the business world to be more diligent in implementing prevention and conservation efforts — thousands of U.S. state and federal regulations (in addition to numerous voluntary standards) require that organizations be in full legal compliance with mandates concerning environmental protection.

Public opinion is also heavily influencing environmental developments.  In a March 2009 Gallup Environment survey, “pollution of drinking water” was listed as Americans’ No. 1 environmental concern, with 59 percent of those polled saying they worry “a great deal” about the issue. Fifty-two percent said they worried equally about “pollution of rivers, lakes and waters,” and “contamination of soil and water by toxic waste.”  In comparison, 45 percent are worried about “air pollution,” while the “greenhouse effect” (or “global warming”) is of great concern to 34 percent of the survey’s respondents.

Polluting companies with environmental recovery obligations and a portfolio of contaminated sites are on official notice to get busy cleaning up the mess.  However, since tracking environmental data, site cleanup and regulatory compliance are non-core activities for most corporations, doing the work themselves offers very little direct economic advantage, which makes the endeavor ideal for outsourcing to dedicated specialist third parties.

 

Consulting—Lucrative but Uncertain

Enter the environmental consultant, expert advisor to an incredibly lucrative market.

The Environmental Business Journal reports that the total U.S. environmental industry generated revenues of more than $300 billion in 2009.  This dynamic market has given rise to a $30 billion consulting and remediation practice.  ENR Magazine’s Top 200 Environmental Firms ranking, published each July, provides an annual look at this market.

Nearly 9,000 companies, ranging in size from one-person businesses to global corporations, provide environmental consulting services.  Major companies include CH2M HILL, Parsons, AECOM, and URS as well as environmental engineering and consulting divisions of large engineering and construction firms such as Fluor and Bechtel.  Contracts can run into the millions of dollars and extend for years.

But it’s a volatile business. A list of the leading company names from ten years ago would be very different from today’s list of top performers.  If one thing is certain in the environmental industry, it is that clients switch consultants frequently. Sometimes they initiate the action. Other times, it is forced upon them when consultants change ownership via mergers and acquisitions, or simply go out of business.

Anyone who has been in the environmental consulting business for any length of time is most likely familiar with the names of those companies that have been relegated to history.  Here are a few: Morrison-Knudsen, Smith Technology Corporation, Canonie Environmental Services, Woodward Clyde, Radian, Dames and Moore, OHM, AWD, Rust, Harding Lawson, and IT Corporation.  At their peak, most of these companies made the ENR Top 100 list.

The changeability inherent with consulting companies presents clients concerned about their environmental liabilities with a problem.  What if a now defunct company was tasked 10 years ago to build and maintain analytical data management software for a client with a portfolio of contaminated sites?  In the upheavals caused by the business transactions involving these companies, the whereabouts and security of a client’s water or air quality data is apt to be one of the least concerns of the involved parties. Environmental Financial Consulting Group (EFCG) reported in October 2009 the staggering statistic that in the previous 12 years, 23 (58 percent) of the top 40 environmental consulting firms have gone bankrupt or disappeared, 17 (42 percent) have survived,  33 (84 percent) have undergone a major ownership change, and only 7 (18 percent) remain the same.

The volatility in the environmental consulting sector is not just limited to the businesses providing these services.  On average, U.S. corporations lose half their customers in five years, half their employees in four, and half their investors in less than one.” (Frederick Reichheld, “The Loyalty Effect”).  Given these statistics, does any company have any other choice but to take full ownership of its own water, air and other environmental data?

Such instability is another reason why the “consultant-centric” environmental data management model is so appealing to consultants and, despite the availability of alternatives, has endured so long—it works for them.

It also works for corporate environmental managers (if not the company bottom line).  Since corporate environmental departments really don’t help a company make a product or a profit, these departments are often perceived by top management as cost centers…and even potential liabilities.  As a result, they have historically been severely underfunded and understaffed.  Department understaffing results in co-dependent relationships between in-house managers and their hired consultants, who end up functioning as the environmental department manager’s “de facto staff,” performing the job assignments normally carried out by regular employees.

 

Diversity the Key

The designation “environmental consultant” is a general term for a heterogeneous group of professionals with significantly diverse skill sets and experience.  Earth’s natural environment is such a vast, ultra-complex ecosystem that remediation teams must of necessity possess an extensive array of knowledge, talents and multidisciplinary capabilities.

This is apparent in the delivery of services like contaminated site remediation, in which consultants investigate and clean up toxic substance releases like petroleum spills or dumped hazardous materials.  Consultants perform preliminary site endangerment assessments and forensic evaluations, conduct soil and subsurface groundwater investigations, and prepare and carry out cleanup and long-term monitoring (so-called “long term stewardship”).  Typical consultant tasks include capturing and logging in samples, uploading data from labs and field, performing analyses, and producing maps and compliance reports, and supervising long-term archiving of data and information.

The multi-disciplinary field of environmental consulting attracts a wide range of practitioners such as engineers, geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, environmental studies PhDs, biologists, atmospheric scientists, climatologists, meteorologists and many more with a variety of technical, governmental, commercial, industrial and academic backgrounds.

And because of the significant information technology (IT) demands associated with contaminated site cleanup activities, the business of environmental consulting also involves highly trained IT managers, software developers, computer technicians, network and systems administrators, and more.

 

Corporate Environmental IT

Some outside consulting firms that provide environmental data storage infrastructure utilize commercial, client-server database management systems. Others have in-house designed databases, generally built on top of the Microsoft Access relational database management system.  Surprisingly, though, the most common tool used to store and report data is the ubiquitous Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

But that humble application is rapidly giving ground to an emerging “green” software market with hundreds of tools for jobs like managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and industrial pollution, air and water consumption, paper waste, energy conservation and regulatory compliance requirements.

The multi-billion dollar environmental software market encompasses numerous sub-segments with applications for air and climate, energy and renewables, health and safety, monitoring and testing, soil and groundwater, waste and recycling, water and wastewater, and environmental management.  This last segment includes software for categories like investigations and assessments, auditing, compliance, ecology, EHS, environmental finance, management systems, modeling, permitting, planning, reporting, risk, science, sustainability and green building.

The traditional “consultant-centric” approach to environmental site cleanup is changing under pressure from clients and within the industry itself to adapt consulting practices to the new “company centric” information processing realities of the Internet age, e.g., Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and “Cloud” Computing. In summary we are witnessing the early stage of the transformation from a highly distributed, unconnected, multiple platform  silo systems to the centralized, single platform web-based Enterprise Environmental Resource Planning (EERP) systems .

 

SaaS via Cloud Computing

In the SaaS delivery model, the software vendor provides access to its software and functions remotely as a Web-based service. SaaS allows organizations to access business functionality at a cost typically less than paying for licensed applications, since SaaS pricing is based on a monthly rental fee.  Instead of users buying software and paying for periodic upgrades, their use of a SaaS application is subscription based and all upgrades are provided during the term of the subscription. When the subscription period expires, all a client needs to do is to renew.

This on-demand service provides measurable economies of scale and cost advantages because the more customers a SaaS vendor has, the less each customer pays for a subscription.  This process continuously drives down costs while improving software quality as a SaaS application benefits from the “wisdom of the crowd,” i.e., its many users.  When a large “network effect” is present, as is the case with SaaS-based software, the value of a product or service increases as more people use it. This effect, which originally described the rapid spread of telephones, and that has manifested itself more recently in the rapid adoption of social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIN, states that the value of a communications network to its users rises exponentially with the number of people connected to it.

SaaS applications are maintained in the service provider’s datacenter, and every time users launch their browsers and log on, they get the latest version of the software as well as access to the most current data, which is also stored in the service provider’s datacenter.  Because the software is hosted remotely, users don’t need to invest in additional hardware or software. SaaS removes the need for organizations to handle installation, set-up and often daily upkeep and maintenance.

SaaS environmental applications are remotely hosted by service providers like Locus Technologies and made available to customers via the Internet—the “Cloud.”

“Cloud Computing,” a name inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams, is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services on the Internet.  Cloud Computing describes all data processing activity that occurs “outside the firewall” of security measures that protect an organization’s networked computer systems.  The Cloud provides the computing capacity required to run SaaS and other types of applications.  Since SaaS is a subservice of Cloud Computing, all SaaS applications are in the Cloud, which provides the computing power to run those applications.

In environmental information management, Cloud Computing puts companies back in charge of their own data while at the same time offering individuals with the appropriate logon privileges unfettered access not only to relevant data, but also to tools needed to analyze these data.  If one can find information on something he or she is looking for on the Web in seconds and for free, why should one have to pay a consultant to dig into their own data to give them information they already own?

By storing their clients’ data on their own servers or otherwise monopolizing that data, consultants erect a substantial barrier to any improvement in a situation that has amounted to client management’s willing relinquishment of control over a critical asset and resource the company actually owns.  When senior management generally lacks familiarity with (and even interest in) their own environmental data, a company often has a poorly connected relationship with that data.  This can result in having to pay consultants to mine the company’s own environmental data to find information that the company already possesses and should be able to readily access.  Cloud Computing circumvents this artificial barrier.

Companies that pay a price for polluting also pay an additional price for turning over control of their environmental data.  This comes in many forms, including:

  • Increased expenditures
  • Greater data inconsistency and variability
  • More frequent QA/QC issues
  • No access to performance metrics
  • Fewer opportunities to reduce sampling
  • Poorer security and backup, and duplicative efforts across consultants.
  • Less opportunity to improve their operational processes that could ultimately be optimized to prevent a need for environmental data collection and reporting in the first place.

Consultants provide valuable advice and service in their particular areas of expertise, and the best consultants utilize the best tools available to meet their obligations to their clients.  Savvy environmental consultants and their clients clearly recognize the mutual benefits to be derived from adapting to the new realities of “company centric” environmental data management in the “Cloud.”

Locus Technologies (www.locustec.com), Mountain View, Calif., is the industry leader in Cloud Computing environmental solutions serving mid-market and Fortune 500 corporations in numerous industrial segments, including technology, manufacturing and energy production (e.g., Alstom, Chevron, ExxonMobil).

ZDNet | Water, logged: Software now calculates water footprint

One of the developers in the environmental compliance management software space, Locus Technologies, has added the ability to track water footprint-related information.

Water Footprint

Locus cloud-based software offers the solution for the complex problem of footprinting water quality

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 24, 2010 — In response to international recognition of the need for industry to increase its water reporting efforts, Locus Technologies (Locus), leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has expanded its award winning Environmental Information Management (EIM) software to include water quality footprinting capabilities for businesses.

EIM’s expanded functionality enables companies to manage and organize their water quality data on a larger and more comprehensive scale using cloud-based computing and storage, thus avoiding the need to buy additional environmental software or store the same data in more than one location. And, Locus’ innovative enterprise software model employs mashups — applications that integrate data or functionality from multiple sources or technologies — offering the potential to completely upend the way a corporation manages its water data.

There is little dispute in both scientific and business communities that water shortages represent a worldwide challenge no less important than climate change. Water is a finite resource, growing in scarcity as the world’s population explodes. The worldwide water shortage is acute — less than three percent of the world’s water supply is drinking water. In addition, there is one notable difference between water and air emissions. Any emission of unwanted gases into the air can be almost instantly remediated by cutting off the source. However, any gases that have escaped cannot be recaptured to be remediated. In contrast, water that is contaminated frequently can be treated, but the process is generally lengthy, costly, and energy-intensive. Once contaminated, water needs to be monitored until cleaned. Water is vital and its value varies according to locality, use, and conditions.

Over the last 15 years, Locus has focused on water quality and related issues. The company has a world-class team of experts with deep domain knowledge in this field. Locus’ flagship application EIM is successfully deployed at thousands of sites worldwide and contains organized water quality information at millions of locations. Existing regulations require monitoring and reporting of both groundwater and surface water contamination from various industrial processes, spills, and other releases. Until recently, such voluminous data was kept mainly to comply with regulatory reporting requirements regarding effluents and contamination.

However, governments and other voluntary reporting organizations such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the non-profit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are shifting their focus from compliance-based monitoring and reporting of effluents to reporting on the scarcity and quality of drinking water supplies, in effect monitoring the “water footprint” required of industry, agriculture, and manufacturing. The water accounting is the next big challenge for business.

CDP late last year launched its Water Disclosure initiative, seeking to increase reporting on water-related risks and opportunities, especially by companies operating in water-intensive sectors. CDP Water Disclosure will provide critical water-related data from the world’s largest corporations to inform the global market place on investment risk and commercial opportunity.

The total volume of freshwater used by a business defines its water quantity footprint. Water quantity footprints are measured in terms of volume of water consumed and/or contaminated per unit of time and are relatively easy to calculate. Such is not the case for water quality footprints, which require analyzing water samples for a potentially endless number of chemical parameters that define water quality in accordance with various regulatory standards such as the Clean Water Act. The amount and quantity of data generated in this process is staggering and unmanageable without sophisticated software tools, such as EIM provides.

“Water management issues represent a potentially huge area of risk for business. Reducing one’s water footprint should be part of the environmental strategy of a business, just like reducing one’s carbon footprint or energy usage already is. Our customers have traditionally focused on meeting emission standards associated with releases to water, air, and soil,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“Meeting emission standards for compliance purposes is one thing, but looking at how effluents’ management actually results in lower risk, reduced energy consumption, improved operational efficiency, and ultimately an improved bottom line is another thing. Leaders who create water quality transparency for their companies before others do, and who formulate specific and measurable targets with respect to water footprint reduction, can turn this into a competitive advantage and Locus software can help them do that,” continued Duplan.

San Francisco Chronicle | The Gulf Spill: Shut down the well first

It appears that almost the entire focus of the response to the BP oil rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on how to deal with the oil on the surface of the water. The focus needs to be on shutting down the well.

EPA Calls for Stricter Drinking-Water Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to tighten standards for four water contaminants that can cause cancer as part of a new strategy to toughen drinking-water regulation.

EPA said it will start rulemakings to revise standards for two contaminants used in industrial or textile processing, tetracholorethylene and trichloroethylene, within the year. The EPA will follow that rulemaking by setting stricter standards for epichlorohydrin and acrylamide, which can contaminate drinking water through the water-treatment process.
Speaking at a conference of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency is now developing a broad new set of strategies to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water.

“To confront emerging health threats, strained budgets and increased needs—today’s and tomorrow’s drinking water challenges—we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies,” she said.

Ms. Jackson said the agency would now address contaminants as a group rather than individually, saying the current process is too time-consuming and fails to take advantage of cost-effective programs and technology. She said the EPA would also help to foster new technologies, use existing laws more stringently and partner with states to share data from public-water systems.

The agency is also assessing 14 other contaminants, including law and copper, chromium, fluoride, arsenic, atrazine and perchlorate.

Locus and Overhoff to Offer Real Time Tritium Monitoring and Compliance Software at Nuclear Facilities

Cloud Computing Solution for Tritium Transparency at Nuclear Power Plants

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 15, 2010 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based environmental compliance and information management software, and Overhoff Technology Corporation, the world’s leader in the design and manufacture of Tritium monitors and radiation monitoring systems, have partnered to offer a complete Tritium monitoring solution for the nuclear industry using Overhoff’s Tritium instrumentation and Locus’ award winning Cloud Computing software.

As the new Administration advocates expansion of America’s nuclear power industry, pushing for billions of dollars in federal incentives and announcing plans to build the first nuclear plant in decades, new issues have arisen regarding leaking and possibly dangerous levels of Tritium, a radioactive byproduct of the nuclear process. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees the inspection and licensing of nuclear facilities, says roughly 30 of the nation’s 104 reactor units have experienced Tritium leaks. According to the NRC, none of the leaks have impacted public health or safety but, the unmonitored and unexpected releases have raised concerns within the industry and among watchdog groups nationwide.

Similar concerns regarding leaks at several plants in the mid 2000’s prompted the members of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) to put forth a Ground Water Protection Initiative (NEI-07-07) in 2007. This Initiative identifies actions that utilities can take to improve their management and response to instances where the inadvertent release of radioactive substances may result in low but detectible levels of plant-related materials in subsurface soils and water, even when these are well below the NRC limits pertaining to the protection of public health and safety. One of the key actions that adoptees of the Initiative are expected to undertake is the establishment of an on-site groundwater monitoring program involving on site monitoring or regular sampling and analyses to ensure the timely detection of inadvertent radiological releases. The Tritium groundwater challenge was addressed in 2009 when Locus introduced the nuclear module for its flagship product EIM that is already deployed at several nuclear power plants.

According to the NRC, additional requirements pertaining to the monitoring of air releases of Tritium and Carbon-14 are likely to be promulgated in the future. To meet these requirements, new monitoring instruments and data management tools will have to be installed since many facilities are still using over 30-year old stack monitors and few, if any currently have H-3 or C-14 stack monitors in place.

For those nuclear facilities wanting to fulfill their responsibility under existing (e.g., 10CFR-51 and 10CFR-52) as well as likely forthcoming regulations, the Locus/TA Overhoff solution provides a complete system for Tritium monitoring. TA-Overhoff has been designing and manufacturing nuclear air and stack monitors since 1946. The company recently announced the new, state-of-the-art CAM-TC and CAM-TCI series monitors. The model CAM-TC is a full-service, state-of the-art, stack monitor that reads, analyzes and records Beta-Gamma Particulates, Iodine, Noble Gases, C-14, Tritium and optionally, Alpha Particulates. The data captured by the CAM-TC monitors is immediately passed to Locus’ EIM where it is managed and integrated with groundwater and other monitoring data. Within EIM, graphs can be plotted, reports generated, maps can be produced and statistical analyses performed.

“Nearly all of the activities associated with water and air protection at nuclear power plants, including the assessment of site characteristics, the ongoing monitoring of site conditions, and decommissioning of old plants or permitting of new plants, involve the collection and/or analysis of data. The tools and systems used to manage and store this information must satisfy strict NRC security and QA/QC requirements such as NQA-1 or ISO 9001:2008 to ensure that only the appropriate people can access the data, and that the quality of the data adheres to the highest NRC standards. It is also critical that these applications allow engineers and scientists to do their work in a cost-effective way, allowing them to focus less of their time on finding the data they need and formatting various outputs, and more on the evaluation and analysis of these data. In addition data must be transparent and verifiable to all stakeholders. All of these requirements are instantly met using Locus/Overhoff monitoring and data management solution. We are very pleased that Overhoff Technology has decided to join forces with Locus. The company’s outstanding reputation for having monitors that excel in performance will enhance Locus’ offering in the important nuclear monitoring market,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.

“We are very pleased to join with Locus to bring an integrated and elegant solution to address the nuclear industry’s Tritium monitoring needs. Our experience in producing hundreds of different types of monitors for different users, coupled with Locus’ market leader position in Cloud Computing-based environmental data management, will benefit our joint clients,” said Dr. Robert I. Goldstein, President and CEO of Overhoff.

 

ABOUT OVERHOFF
Founded in 1972, Overhoff Technology Corporation specializes in the design and manufacture of Tritium monitors. With the world’s largest selection of Tritium monitors, Overhoff can offer monitors ranging from simple hand held units to complex integrated digital radiation monitoring systems.

For more information, visit www.overhoff.com or email sales@overhoff.com.

San Francisco Chronicle | One word: emissions

CEO Neno Duplan would not disclose the dollar amount of the contract, which was announced last week, but, he said, “I can tell you, in this industry, it doesn’t get bigger than this.”