Decontamination and decommissioning services are needed whenever a change in facility use is required where radioactive materials were used under broad scope or specific material licenses.  A comprehensive evaluation of building surfaces and building systems is necessary to allow members of the public access to these former restricted areas.  Contaminated materials include floors, walls, laboratory cabinetry, instrumentation, fume hoods, exhaust ventilation, drain and vacuum systems.  D&D projects can range in size from a single designated laboratory up to multi-building campuses. Materials exceeding these values are either decontaminated or packaged as radioactive wastes.  The supporting documentation is provided to the regulatory agency and a request to terminate or amend the user’s radioactive material license is made.

DDES possesses a full service radioactive material license issued under the authority of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s (MDPH) Radiation Control Program (RCP).  This mobile radioactive materials license authorizes our trained personnel to provide full service decontamination, decommissioning, and radioactive waste management services for our clients both locally and nationally under reciprocal agreement.  Our clients can easily select the option of having projects performed under our radioactive materials license to speed the decommissioning process and limit corporate liabilities for compliance.  Use of our license allows project activities to be performed under our Corporate Radiation Protection Plan with our procedures specifically designed for decontamination, decommissioning and radioactive waste management services.

Our staff uses the latest technologies for the detection of contaminated structures and materials to accurately delineate areas that meet the decommissioning criteria effectively saving the client time and money.  This reduces labor and contaminated waste generated from remediation activities.  We follow NUREG-1757 Consolidated Decommissioning Guidance, NUREG-1575 Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Assessment of Materials and Equipment Manual (MARSAME) guidelines for characterization, remediation and final status surveys.