Hazardous Wastes
Class 1, Class 7 Materials
Additionally, Sandy Straus has demonstrated outstanding proficiency in risk analysis and nuclear waste disposal through significant authorship, experience, refereeing, computation, lectureship, certification, and education. She has authored, along with Dr. Ian Farmer, six books, pending publication, on the subjects of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Yucca Mountain, the United States Department of Energy waste generator-host sites, mine safety, and international approaches to nuclear waste disposal.
Sandy Straus has proven her extensive expertise in the areas of geology, nuclear engineering, seismology, and volcanology and how these relate to probabilistic risk assessment of geologic nuclear waste repositories, through refereeing posts for a prestigious international journal. She has also refereed papers on flood risks, mitigation, and phenomena. Ms. Straus is also an expert in risk perception and risk analysis of the impacts of transuranic nuclear waste transportation through the American Indian tribal lands of New Mexico. In a recent Transportation Research Board presentation and paper, Ms. Straus has demonstrated that traffic risks, in addition to radiological risks, require further study along current and future waste transportation routes. She has worked with every pueblo and reservation in New Mexico to accomplish this aptitude. She has developed and implemented national and international risk communication and assessment programs. Ms. Straus also has strong computing and coding skills in UNIX, Mac, and PC platforms. Ms. Straus has successfully generated two- and three-dimensional magnetic field maps of the lunar crust using Lunar Prospector data through a NASA-funded grant. She has also worked on OS/2-Warp at IBM.
Ms. Straus also has proficiency in environmental impact assessments, Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), land development, regulatory permitting, contamination, failure analyses, exposure assessment, probabilistic exposure assessments, hazards and risks evaluation, transportation route analyses, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compliance, mining, petroleum and gas probabilistic assessments, hydrogeologic characterization, safety engineering, residential and commercial construction, and overweight vehicle impacts on pavement damage.
Ms. Straus is also educated in the storage, transportation, safety, and legal aspects of explosives and explosive devices. She holds a certificate of Hazardous Materials Incident Response: Awareness through the University of Missouri- Columbia. She is also certified in Radiological Emergency Management, Radiological Emergency Response, Building for the Earthquakes: Complying with Executive Order 12699, Engineering Principles and Practices for Retrofitting Flood-Prone Residential Structures, IS-100 Incident Command System, and IS-700 National Incident Management System (NIMS) through the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Ms. Straus also holds a certificate of Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety issued through the United States Department of Transportation.