Stuck with Smoke Detectors

[Free Spirit <FRANK@rover.bsd.uchicago.edu>]

	I saw the following filler in the local paper the other day.
	It reminded me of previous discussions about Government workers and
	what they will/won't, (or can/can't) do for us.

	I think it's a classic example of what the public in general (and I 
	believe many people in various professions,) perceive as a failing
	of our bureacuracy, (and not necessarily individual members therof.)

	(Article follows)

	DENVER - A cargo of mildly radioactive material has been sitting
	in a truck in a parking lot since 1983, and the shipping company
	and the state can't get rid of it.

	American Shippers, a trucking company, was hired to haul nine
	cortons of smoke detector parts containing tiny amounts of a
	radioactive isotope, americium 241, to Los Angeles for eventual
	shipment to a company in Taiwan. The deal fell through and the 
	cartons were returned to Denver and American Shippers, which
	agreed to keep the material because the export broker didn't have
	space. The broker eventually went out of business.

	Robert Fawcett, an owner of American Shippers, said he has run
	into nothing but problems trying to get rid of the cartons.
	"Everybody has really treated this stuff like it's the plague," he
	said. "We're trying to be good citizens, but no one will help us."

	The cargo is "extremely low level material," said Chuck Mattson of
	the state Department of Public Health and Environmental's radiation
	control division. "There is no radiation exposure outside the truck,
	and right now it poses no health risk," he said. "But we really do
	want to take care of it for once and for all."

	Fawcett called the U.S. Environmental Protedtion Agency, which said
	the boxes were the responsibility of the Colorado Health Department.
	The health department found it would cost as much as $40,000 to
	dispose of the radioactive parts, but neither it nor American Shippers
	was willing to pay.

	In 1993, GTov. Roy Romer asked the U.S. Department of Energy for Help.
	Last February, the Energy Department said it couldn't help. Romer then
	contacted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which this month sent him
	right back where American Shippers started.

	(end of article)

Frank R. Borger - Physicist     ___      "If I ever had to pick 6 guys to
Michael Reese - U of Chicago   |___      storm a pillbox, and there was no
Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   coming back, I'd pick 6 White Sox
net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu    | \|_)  fans, because all they've ever known
ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-2517       |_)  is loosing, and death holds no terror
 					 for them anymore." - Gene Shepard