Recent and upcoming cleanup activities at a former low-level radiation research facility a mile south of the main University of California, Davis, campus will be discussed at a public meeting Tuesday, Nov. 16. The update meeting, part of an ongoing process that encourages community "stakeholder" involvement, is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy and UC Davis. It will begin at 6 p.m. in the Orchard Room of the University Extension complex, located on Extension Center Drive near the Hutchison Drive entrance to campus. Free parking passes will be available at the parking lot entrance. Comments and questions from members of the public are welcome. DOE has made substantial progress in its environmental assessment and cleanup at the former DOE-funded Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, where for more than 30 years research focused on the long-term health effects of exposure to low-level radiation. In recent months, three buildings (Animal Hospital-1, Animal Hospital-2 and a storage building for laboratory materials) have been cleaned of residual low-level radioactivity and are awaiting independent confirmation of cleanup before their expected transfer to the university. Of the 16 buildings on site only two remain to be assessed and cleaned -- a special sewage treatment facility for animal waste and a building that housed a cobalt-60 irradiator. They are scheduled to be cleaned within the next few years. DOE officials estimate that roughly $780,000 was saved during the past few months through the implementation of progressive waste-management procedures that greatly reduced the volume of waste generated by the cleanup of the three buildings. In addition to costing less for disposal, the specially packaged waste will also occupy substantially less landfill space. Currently, DOE is preparing to launch a study to investigate in greater detail any soil or groundwater contamination that may exist on the LEHR site as well as in the nearby campus sanitary landfill, closed since 1966, and in several adjacent low-level radioactive waste burial areas. The campus and LEHR deposited wastes in the burial areas until 1974. The study, called a remedial investigation/feasibility study, is expected to take up to two years to complete. Copies of background information on the LEHR site, along with reports and plans, are available at the reserve desk of Shields Library on campus and the reference desk of the public library in the city of Davis, 315 E. 14th St.