EPA's Plan for Radioactive Recycling
by Sharon R. Skolnick

From the walls of a nuclear plant to your baby's stroller, with your government's blessings? Someday soon, "slightly" radioactive steel containing traces of tritium, strontium-90 and plutonium 239 salvaged from defunct nuclear facilities may be showing up in laptop computer batteries, toasters and kids' furniture. It's already being done in Europe.

In 1996, the European Union issued Council Directive 96/29/Euratom, which legalized the use of recycled rad-scrap in consumer products. Radioactive bicycles, toys and eyeglasses have already started to flood Asian markets, reports the Malaysian consumer magazine Utusan Konsumer.

In the US, Public Citizen, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and other activist groups have vigorously protested the proposed recycling of radioactive scrap, and are demanding a zero-tolerance policy to keep the materials out of the marketplace.

John Karhnak, director of the EPA's Center for Clean-up and Re-Use, contends that the agency is looking out for public safety and that only "near radiation- free" and "safe-for-the-public" rad-scrap will ever find their way into consumer products. "We are not out to open the floodgates so robber barons can pour radioactive pollution onto the public" Karhnak insists.

The EPA is proposing that materials deemed "clean" can be sold to private manufacturers, while "dirty" scrap will be sent to a nuclear disposal site at Barnwall, North Carolina, for burial. Unfortunately, the EPA has yet to determine what levels are to be considered "safe" and which are "dirty."

Karhnak' claims that a minute amount of radiation in scrap is similar to a tiny amount of dirt in food - which is allowed under Food and Drug Administration rules. He says that in many cases a layer of contamination can be removed from the scrap - e.g., the "hot" paint or slag can be melted or scraped off - leaving potentially recyclable non-radioactive material. "Our intent is not to foist radiation on the public ... there are a lot of people who don't have good information or are being misled," says Karhnak.

Participants at a 1996 Environmental Law Institute Conference (which included nuclear facilities workers, members of the scrap metal industry and environmental activists) overwhelmingly advocated a ban on recycling rad-scrap and recapturing of materials already released or uncontained. NIRS representative Diane D'Arrigo revealed that the Department of Energy had contracted with British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd. (BNFL) to help finance the decommissioning of three uranium enrichment factories in Tennessee. This plan would release about 112,000 tons of radioactive nickel, copper, aluminum and steel scrap into markets in the US and abroad. Some of the scrap would be sold to companies such as Ovonics, which produces nickel hydride batteries for scooters, cars, computers and children's toys.

In licensing a BNFL-hired metal smelter, Manufacturing Sciences Corp., Tennessee state regulators will be setting de facto national standards for commercial- grade rad-scrap. "The EPA is developing standards to justify releasing radioactivity for use in everyday items," charges D'Arrigo. "The government regulators are completely selling out."

What You Can Do: Public comments may be sent to the EPA c/o: Center for Clean- up and Re-Use, EPA, Mail Code 6602, Washington, DC 20460 (202) 564-9280; fax: (202) 565-2042. For more information: Nuclear Information and Resource Service, 1424 16th St., NW, Suite 404, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 328-0002. Web: www.nirs.org.