Re: Energy Dept. Halts Contaminated Nickel Sale

["D. Kosloff" <dkosloff@ncweb.com>]

I thought the nickel was decontaminated and that the nickel itself had never
been radioactive.  Did Reuters make an error?

Don Kosloff mailto:dkosloff@ncweb.com
Perry OH


---- Original Message -----
From: Sandy Perle <sandyfl@earthlink.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 5:01 PM
Subject: Energy Dept. Halts Contaminated Nickel Sale


> 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.
>
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> Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
> Director, Technical Extension 2306
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>
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