News
Los Alamos radio station features TA-21 pollution prevention
LANL's Al Chaloupka and radio host Gillian Sutton talk about environmentally friendly OREX suits on KRSN-AM.
February 17, 2011—LANL's Al Chaloupka and radio host Gillian Sutton talk about environmentally friendly OREX suits on KRSN-AM.
Los Alamos radio station KRSN-AM 1490 featured a LANL pollution prevention effort last week.
Al Chaloupka, program manager for the Material Disposal Area B cleanup project, was interviewed about his team's use of OREX protective suits.
Rather than being packaged for disposal at a low-level waste landfill, OREX suits are dissolved in a hot water process at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
On a per-use basis, OREX suits are about 15 percent cheaper than traditional cotton suits, which must be laundered after each use. Chaloupka estimated that workers at MDA B will go through 100,000 suits during the 12-month project.
The interview aired at 7:30 a.m. last Thursday (Feburary 17th). Listen to the interview, or read more here.
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Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of DOE-owned property.
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