Radiation Journal

Dangers in Radiation

Oak Ridge, TN

On August 24, ABC News reported that some experts are worried that recycled radioactive metal could pose a public health risk.

Some buildings at Oak Ridge are part of what local residents once called "the secret city". This is where uranium was produced for nuclear weapons and later for nuclear power plants. That ended in 1985. Now the government has the problem of finding what to do with the equipment inside--more than 100,000 tons of radioactive metal.

The Department of Energy has reportedly paid $238 million to a British company called BNFL to haul the contaminated metal away, piece by piece, treat it and then recyle it.

Manufacturing Sciences Corp, a BNFL subsidiary, uses steel grit to blast away surface contamination on the metal. Even then, some radioactivity remains, but at a very low level.

From there, the metal goes through brokers to steel mills across the country, but no one keeps track of where it goes or what kind of product it is turned into.

So where does it go? It could be used for silverware, pots and pans, watches or eyeglasses.

According to Diane D'Arrigo of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, "It can be the zipper on your pants, your earrings, your belt buckle, a hip replacement joint, your baby carriage."

The Department of Energy claims ther are no risks to the public.

"We've evaluated all the concerns and we're convinced that this does not represent an undue risk to the public," says DOE's spokesperson at Oak Ridge, Steve Richardson.

Others are not so sure.

Richard Miller of the Paper, Chemical, and Energy Workers Union asks, "If every source of material that we buy, consume, own, purchase, live with has radiation in it, at what point does that dose become significant?"

At Oak Ridge and other facilities, there is particular controversy surrounding nickel, which is contaminated throughout, not just on its surface. What is the national standard governing the release of such materials?

"We do not at this time have a natinal standard for material that has contamination inside it," admits Malcolm Knapp of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The state of Tennessee has been given the job of regulating Oak Ridge. So far, none of the nickel has been released into the marketplace. Nearly 2 million pounds of other radioactive metals have been recycled.

But the effort to reclaim another legacy of the Cold War and the debate over it are both far from over.