Shredding of radwaste

[Jim Bell <JBell@adcoservices.com>]

Hi Everybody!
  Through a combination of errors I have been off of Radsafe for about
the last three weeks. When I last tuned in there were a couple of
inquiries from folks who wanted to hear from anybody who had experience
using a shredder in processing radioactive waste. At that time I posted
the following message, which I guess never went anywhere because of the
problems we were having with our service at the time. Here it is again:
  We've been shredding radwaste for many years as part of our
decay-in-storage disposal service for our customers. We've used a
Shred-Pax shredder made by Shred-Pax located in the Chicago area. I
believe the model is the AZ-7 or 17, something like that. Not the
smallest, but certainly not the largest either. It is capable of
shredding general labware with no problem and will handle just about any
metal up to about one-eighth inch thick that it can get it's teeth into,
(literally). The cost of this machine when we bought it about 12-15
years ago was less than $20,000. Now I believe they run about $25-30,000
for one the size of ours. Things to plan for: Careful operators! A
careless operator will cost you thousands of dollars in repairs. We once
had somebody throw a hammer into the unit, which quickly broke the drive
shaft. If you shred a lot of glass you will need to replace the teeth
every couple of years as the glass just tears them up. Cost to replace
teeth can be pretty expensive, (around $1000), so be prepared. You will
also need a special power supply for the larger units. I believe ours
runs on 460V. And, of course, it goes without saying, but I'll say it
anyway, safety training and retraining is EXTREMELY important as these
units have the potential to rip anything apart that happens to come in
contact with its teeth, if you get my meaning. Other than that they are
great machines that can really help reduce the volume of rad waste you
have on hand. 
  If anybody has any further question, feel free to give me a call or
post an email to jbell@adcoservices.com. My phone no. is 1-800/282-2326.

Jim Bell
President
Adco services, Inc.
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