Company Overview

SCIMUS Inc. was established in 1983 as a company providing consulting services in site remediation and waste management. Its expertise is centered around that of Dr. Buchnea's more than 20 years experience and the firm has been active in the determination of the environmental impact of many different types of wastes: radioactive wastes (high and low level), uranium mine and mill tailings wastes, metals mining and milling wastes, landfill wastes, industrial wastes and hazardous wastes. SCIMUS has developed remedial plans and has conducted environmental impact assessment and risk assessment studies. SCIMUS has also been involved in developing, implementing, and monitoring health and safety plans related to radioactive materials. The radiation expertise in SCIMUS has also been applied to radiation protection, waste characterization, site selection, risk identification and assessment, waste disposal studies.

SCIMUS has been involved in developing and assessing disposal options for uranium refinery wastes for Eldorado/Cameco Ltd., waste characterization, site selection and waste disposal studies for Port Hope low level radioactive wastes for AECL's Low Level Radioactive Waste Office and the Siting Task Force for Low Level Radioactive wastes, environmental impact assessment and risk assessment studies for Cameco's uranium tailings in northern Saskatchewan and baseline and characterization studies for various uranium mine sites in northern Saskatchewan. SCIMUS has also provided expert advise to FEARO panels for several new uranium mining projects in northern Saskatchewan.

Present Activities SCIMUS Inc. is providing design input and radiation protection in the remediation of medium level radioactive waste at Ontario Power Generation's Radioactive Waste Storage Facility. SCIMUS is developing a Licensing Basis System, Action Levels, and Derived Release Limits for Ontario Power Generation's Radioactive Waste Sites. SCIMUS is presently acting as project manager in the decommissioning of a large fertilizer plant near the Great Lakes. This project has been active for the past ten years and involves the implementation of an accelerated source depletion scheme to reduce the time period for treating the phosphorus, fluoride and uranium in the effluent. A vegetative close-out option is also being pursued. SCIMUS is also involved in the close-out of a ore smelting operation involving arsenic rich ores (radium, arsenic are the major contaminants) in Eastern Ontario for the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy and the remediation of groundwater contamination by nickel and chromium from a automotive plant in Ontario.

SCIMUS Inc. has partnered with A. Van Egmond Construction, leaders in directional drilling to apply this technology to different types of remedial projects such as mine and chemical tailings, industrial wastes, landfills, contamination under buildings, roadways, runways, and paved plant sites, and bioremediation projects.

SCIMUS also has considerable expertise in characterizing and remediating radioactively contaminated sites. SCIMUS Inc. develops and implements health and safety protocols for workers involved in the remediation as well as environmental protection during the remediation.

Partnering Interests SCIMUS has completed most of its projects in Canada in partnership with other environmental consulting companies, from small (less than 10 employees) to large (greater than 5000 employees), and would be interested in forming similar associations with firms in Mexico, Latin America, or Europe.

Company Information

Additional Details

Legal Name: Scimus Inc.

Number of Employees: 2

Contacts

Services

• Environmental Consultant - Air Quality-air Dispersion Modelling
• Environmental Consultant - Consulting
• Environmental Consultant - Environmental Impact Assessments

  Computer modelling of release and transport of contaminants in the environment and risk analysis studies. Computer analysis of the effectiveness of remedial designs.

• Environmental Consultant - Hazardous Waste-radioactive

  Designed and evaluated disposal options for low level radioactive wastes and uranium mine tailings wastes.

• Environmental Consultant - Industry-chemicals

  Decommissioning of a phosphate fertilizer plant and phosphogypsum ponds. Remedial work on containing contamination of metals from an electroplating company.

• Environmental Consultant - Mine Tailings
• Environmental Consultant - Municipal Solid Waste
• Environmental Consultant - Radon Gas
• Environmental Consultant - Site Assessment
• Environmental Consultant - Soil And Groundwater
• Environmental Consultant - Waste Handling-radioactive Waste
• Environmental Consultant - Waste Transport And Disposal
• Environmental Consultant - Water Quality
• Radiation Protection

  Develop and Implement Radiation Protection Programs, Develop Action Levels, Derived Release Limits, Exposure Estimates, ALARA assessments

Products

• Bioremediation.

  Bioremediation with horizontal wells installed using directional drilling.

  Bioremediation using enzymes and other biological agents has been demonstrated to be effective in breaking down hydrocarbons into environmentally benign compounds. In the past, however, this method has not been cost effective when the hydrocarbons are at depths at which natural aeration is absent. SCIMUS Inc. and A. vanEgmond use the directional drilling technology to install horizontal wells into the contaminated area. These wells can be used first to introduce the biological agents into the contaminated areas and then to introduce the necessary oxygen to allow the aerobic reactions to proceed. This is a cost-effective method to deal with various types of hydrocarbon contamination and both large scale and medium to small scale contaminated areas.

• Environmental Products And Services
• Identify And Remove Radioactive Contamination For Storage Or Disposal.

  SCIMUS Inc. can provide the necessary monitoring equipment and radiation protection protocols to undertake any size of decontamination job. Using local contractors or on-site personnel, SCIMUS Inc. will provide the necessary training, obtain the necessary regulatory approvals and supervise the occupational health and safety and radiation protection aspects of the decontamination. SCIMUS Inc. will bring previous experience to bear on the design of the decontamination project. SCIMUS Inc. will also provide direction in dealing with the resulting wastes.

• Source Depletion System.

  SCIMUS Inc. and A. VanEgmond Construction Ltd. have successfully removed soluble contaminants from areas of soil and groundwater contamination with a flushing system. Horizontal drains are installed under the contaminated area using a directional drilling technology, the contaminated water is collected and treated, and the ground surface is irrigated with clean water. The contaminated water may be treated and used as the source for the irrigation water. The directional drilling allows the wells to be installed from the existing ground surface at any depth and in any location under the contaminated area. The directional control on the drill head allows the drill to be maneouvered into otherwise inaccessible areas. The system works best when the contaminated soil is relatively permeable and underlain by a relatively impermeable layer; however, modifications can be made to adapt the system to most subsurface conditions. Water can be drained from the wells either by gravity or by actively pumping the installed wells. The drilling technology allows drains up to 20' in diameter to be installed using the standard directional drilling machine. This method is very cost-effective when compared with other methods.

Additional Information