News

Dr. James H. Clarke, Technical Director of Environmental Forensics for AquAeTer, and professor of the practice of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University has been elected to the executive committee of the American Nuclear Society’s Decommissioning, Decontamination and Reutilization Division (DD&R). His three-year term began June 30, 2011. Read more…

This year, Cindy and I decided to take on the challenge of hiking approximately 72 miles of the Appalachian Trail through the Smokey Mountains.  We are breaking our hike into two separate trips.  Here is our account from the first trip we took in May.

Approximately 1,600 people attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) starting from Springer Mountain in Georgia, but only about 330 make the entire 2,147 mile trip to Maine.  The 72-mile section of the trail in the Smokies is the most difficult mileage on the whole trail.  Cindy and I began our first leg of the hike along the southern route of the AT in the Smoky Mountains from Clingmans Dome to Fontana Dam (32-miles).  We began our hike at 0644 in the clouds with 36°F temperature and ice on the trees. Elevation was 6,643 feet above the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (ft NGVD).  There was bear scat on the way up to the Dome.  Once we took our first steps onto the trail, we knew that we were committed and turning around was really not an option.  Read more…

Mike Corn, President of AquAeTer, has been elected for the 2011 year to be the Secretary of the Board of the HRWA. The association provides technical input, community involvement, and public oversight of activities that impact the Harpeth River. The River, 125 miles long with over 1000 miles of tributaries, meanders through agricultural, forested and suburban areas of six counties in the greater Nashville region until it joins the Cumberland River. The Harpeth River watershed is the area of land (870 square miles) which drains into the Harpeth River. The Harpeth is one of the unique freshwater river systems of the Southeast which contain a greater variety of aquatic life than anywhere else in the world. Mike is also the Technical Advisor to the Association on water quality issues and regulations that both positively and negatively impact the health of the River.

Steve Wampler, P.E., P.G., Vice-President and Director of Engineering for AquAeTer has been asked to serve on a panel led by Dr. John Garrick to present to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board a summary and address questions on the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) prepared by Dr. Garrick, John Stetkar, Tom Potter, and Wampler pertaining to low-level radioactive waste disposal trenches at the West Valley site. Radionuclide release scenarios considered in the QRA included groundwater and surface-water pathways originating at disposal trenches that are complicated by hypothetical major storm and seismic events.