REOPT‘ SPEEDS ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION DECISIONS
October 08, 1992
RICHLAND, Wash. –
ReOpt‘ software, which saves time and money in selecting suitable technologies for cleaning up contaminated sites, has been licensed to Sierra Geophysics, of Seattle, Washington.
ReOpt was developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratory to help DOE and other federal agencies streamline their cleanup efforts. Because the software has commercial potential, PNL made it available to the private sector through DOE's technology transfer program.
"Part of the national laboratory mission is to contribute to the competitiveness of U.S. industry by transferring technologies developed with taxpayer dollars. A license gives Sierra the opportunity to invest in commercializing ReOpt and to enhance their business," said Marv Erickson, manager of technology transfer in the Applied Physics Center at PNL.
ReOpt is an electronic guide to proven remediation technologies for cleaning up environmental problems. Users can specify a series of conditions such as the nature of the contaminated area, the contaminant and the general way they want to deal with the problem. ReOpt sorts the technologies to provide a short list of choices.
ReOpt contains information about 88 remediation technologies, cross- referenced to 214 synonyms; 674 contaminants, cross-referenced to 1,885 synonyms; and federal regulatory information. The data base is drawn from U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and industry information sources. In addition, ReOpt identifies selected reports containing information about the technologies and references sites where the technologies have been used.
Sierra's marketing manager for environmental products, Jim Tallet, said ReOpt allows for a comprehensive assessment of a cleanup problem and introduces potential solutions that might not be considered by the user. "Usually, the engineer must struggle through a huge mound of research documents and regulations before recommending a cleanup technology," Tallet said. "ReOpt streamlines that decision-making process. It saves time and money by enabling the user to focus only on viable solutions."
PNL's software products manager Hal Setzer says Sierra has the marketing experience to bring ReOpt into the commercial sector. Sierra also worked with PNL to convert ReOpt for use with IBM PC-compatible computers with Windows, while retaining the option of using it on a MacIntosh.
Erickson stressed that, while ReOpt will help cleanup efforts in the private sector, it also demonstrates the DOE's commitment to giving taxpayers a greater return on their investment in federally developed technologies.