Help Stop Nuclear Waste from Getting Out of Control — On Purpose
www.nirs.org/radwaste/outofcontrol/outofcontrol.htm
COMMENT TO DOE TO STOP "restricted" RADIOACTIVE METAL RECYCLING
Nuclear power and weapons radioactive waste is being generated every minute the nuclear fuel chain keeps grinding away.
Radioactive waste has built up since the first self-sustained chain reaction under Stagg Field in Chicago in 1942 and through decades of over 100 nuclear power reactors and over a dozen weapons sites in the US alone. It is called high level or "low-level" but both are hazardous for literally millions of years.
The government and nuclear industry would like to magically treat the so-called "low-level" as No-Level by pretending it is not radioactive...by melting and etching and chopping and burning or simply downblending or diluting it to levels that are more expensive to detect....then dumping in regular trash or literally selling it into the commercial recycling streams to make everyday household items which we contact daily.
Because the public has vehemently opposed every effort to let the waste get out of regulatory control, the Department of Energy DOE is now proposing to do supposedly "restricted recycling" of nuclear waste.
COMMENT TO the Department of Energy BY AUGUST 15, 2008 to oppose their proposal to recycle radioactive metal (cleaned or not—restricted or not) because it will encourage more dispersal of radioactivity into the marketplace and environment. If DOE proceeds, demand they perform a full Environmental Impact Statement.
The Draft Environmental Assessment up for comment is DOE/EA-1599 (http://www.oro.doe.gov/External/Portals/0/EA/DOEEA1599.pdf), Disposition of Radioactively Contaminated Nickel located at the East TN Technology Park Oak Ridge TN and the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah KY for Controlled Radiological Applications.
Key Points
*the proposal would encourage more recycling of radioactive metal that could get into marketplace.
*there is no guarantee that restrictions would stay on the metal after first transfer of ownership.
*workers at facilities using the radioactive metals may not know they are being exposed.
*"cleaning" is incomplete—some radioactivity remains. Radioactivity is released from processing of the contaminated metal and exposes workers and makes more waste needing long-term isolation.
*the goal should be the isolation of radioactivity — not its dispersal.
Comments are due August 15, 2008
EMAIL
HartmanGS@oro.doe.gov
By US Mail
US Dept of Energy Oak Ridge Office PO Box 2001 Oak Ridge TN 37831
More info from DOE 1-800 382 6938
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