Environmental assessment for the decommissioning and decontamination of contaminated facilities at the Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research University of California, Davis

Abstract

The Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research (LEHR) was established in 1958 at its present location by the Atomic Energy Commission. Research at LEHR originally focused on the health effects from chronic exposures to radionuclides, primarily strontium 90 (Sr-90) and radium 226 (Ra-226), using beagles to simulate radiation effects on humans. In 1988, pursuant to a memorandum of agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the University of California, DOE's Office of Energy Research decided to close out the research program, shut down LEHR, and turn the facilities and site over to the University of California, Davis (UCD) after remediation. The decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) of LEHR will be managed by the San Francisco Operations Office (SF) under DOE's Environmental Restoration Program. The LEHR facility is located on a 15-acre site leased from the University of California at its Davis campus (Figure 1-1). The LEHR facilities consist of 16 buildings, including a main administration and office building, two animal hospitals, a laboratory and support buildings, cargo container waste storage facilities, and numerous dog pens. A diagram of the current LEHR site is shown in Figure 1-2. Because DOE-sponsored research at LEHR has ceased, there are no ongoing DOE funded research operations that produce radioactive waste. From 1958 to 1973, LEHR occupied about half of the current site. The original site was adjacent to UCD's former campus sanitary landftU site. UCD recently completed a Solid Waste Water Assessment Test on that property and follow-up investigations are ongoing. Close to the landfill are some trenches and pits that were used by UCD for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste from both campus and LEHR activities. Such disposal, which was a legally accepted practice at the time, ceased in 1974. At that time, the LEHR site was expanded to its current size, by incorporation of the old inactive landfill and adjacent radioactive disposal trenches. This environmental assessment (EA) addresses the D&D of four site buildings and a tank Wailer, and the removal of the on-site cobalt 60 (Co-60) source. Future activities at the site will include D&D of the Imhoff building and the outdoor dog pens, and may include remediation of underground tanks, and the landfill and radioactive disposal trenches. The remaining buildings on the LEHR site are not contaminated.