Energy Dept. Halts Contaminated Nickel Sale

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Wednesday January 12 4:23 PM ET 

Energy Dept. Halts Contaminated Nickel Sale  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on 
Wednesday halted plans to sell radioactive nickel that would be 
melted into scrap metal and could find its way into a range of 
consumer products.  

The department was hoping to sell to recycler British Nuclear Fuels 
Inc. 6,000 tons of nickel used to develop nuclear weapons at the 
government's Oak Ridge facilities in Tennessee.  

The plan was killed after scrap metal dealers, consumer groups and 
members of Congress protested that the public would not buy products 
that could contain radioactive material, a department official said.  


``The department will modify its contract with British Nuclear Fuels 
Inc. to prohibit release of the Oak Ridge nickel into the 
marketplace,'' Richardson said.  

The decision also affects 10,000 tons of contaminated metal at other 
department facilities nationwide.  

No contaminated metal sales will take place until the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission develops national treatment standards for 
radioactive metal, Richardson said.  

Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, praised the Energy 
Department's decision. ``The American public is not clamoring for hot 
spots in their hot plates or braces that make your gums glow,'' he 
said, referring to products that could have been made from the 
radioactive metal.  

But the consumer group Public Citizen criticized the department's 
policy, saying it fell short of protecting consumers.  

The group claims that while the sale of nickel and other metal 
contaminated throughout with radioactive particles, much like sugar 
is distributed throughout a cake, was stopped, surface-contaminated 
metals would still be recycled.  

Public Citizen pointed out that the department will permit 121,000 
tons of metal contaminated on the surface to be recycled into common 
household products such as baby carriages, frying pans, cutlery and 
belt buckles.  

If the NRC determines that metal contaminated throughout should not 
be used in consumer products, then the material could be stored or 
used for industrial purposes, such as manufacturing machinery or 
metal roofs, according to the Energy Department official.  

An NRC spokeswoman said it is unclear when, and if, the agency would 
develop the recycling standards. She said if such guidelines were 
established, they would only apply to facilities under the NRC's 
jurisdiction, but the Energy Department could adopt them for its own 
labs and plants.  

The NRC has been considering whether to develop treatment standards 
for radioactive metal, and held several public workshops on the 
issue. That agency ran into a problem several weeks ago when it 
discovered that the firm it hired to help conduct the research had a 
conflict of interest.  

The company, Science Application International Corp., reportedly 
acted as a consultant at the same time for British Nuclear Fuels on 
its work at Oak Ridge. That was a violation of NRC policies, and the 
agency stopped working with the firm pending a further investigation 
of the matter.  

British Nuclear Fuels, the U.S. subsidiary of U.K.-based British 
Nuclear Fuels Ltd., is the Energy Department contractor that is in 
the process of cleaning up several buildings at the former Oak Ridge 
uranium enrichment plant, including removing equipment containing 
large amounts of nickel.  

Under its original 1997 contract with the department, the company  
had the option of melting and decontaminating the nickel.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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