WARNING:

RADIOACTIVE WASTE AND MATERIALS ARE BEING USED TO MAKE EVERYDAY HOUSEHOLD ITEMS

FROM TOYS, TABLEWARE and TOASTERS to BELTBUCKLES and BATTERIES…

If it’s in a store near you, it could be radioactive!

Radioactive waste from 50 years of atomic weapons and nuclear power production are making their way into general commerce. How could this happen? Rather than isolating the long-lasting radioactive residues from the public and the environment, the nuclear industry and our federal and state regulators are allowing them to be sent directly and indirectly into the marketplace.

Indeed, some release of radioactive waste already is happening but the floodgates are about to open wide, unless we act now. Dangerous precedents are being set for enormous amounts of radioactive materials to enter normal commerce with no warning.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of legalizing the "release" or "clearance" of radioactive materials from licensed, regulated control into raw materials, building supplies and items with which we come into daily contact. As nuclear power reactors are maintained and decommissioned, contaminated parts, concrete rubble, and soil could be let go. The Department of Energy is currently sending radioactively contaminated metals from nuclear weapons sites to regular scrap yards to mix with clean metal for unrestricted public use.

Some states, primarily Tennessee, are licensing and permitting private companies to process and "release" into commerce radioactive materials, including metals, lead and asphalt, usually with no public hearings, notification, or warning.

These radioactive elements result from every part of the nuclear fuel chain (mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, nuclear power production, plutonium and weapons production, reprocessing, decommissioning and waste management). Companies wanting to save money on clean-up costs are being exempted from regulatory controls and allowed to use contaminated materials as if they were not radioactive.

Simply put, the makers of radioactive waste would much rather sell their contaminated metal, concrete, plastic, soil, and other solid wastes to you, to scrap dealers and specialty steel companies, or to other sources for reuse, than to pay to isolate it from the environment and the public for as long as it remains radioactive, in some cases centuries or millenia.

WHY IS THIS DANGEROUS?

There is no safe level of exposure to ionizing radiation, so it makes sense to prevent all unnecessary exposures. Some scientists have shown that risks from routine low doses may actually cause more damage (per unit dose) than single high dose exposures.

Exposure to ionizing radiation increases the risks of cancer, leukemia, genetic defects, illnesses resulting from reduced immunity and other noncancer health effects. The developing embryo and fetus, young children, the elderly and those with already impaired health face the greatest risk.

We could be exposed to radiation from many different contaminated consumer products, building materials, etc. The risks add up and are multiplied when we are exposed to more radiation and other carcinogens in our lives.

These involuntary health threats are being imposed without notification and against our will, so the nuclear industry can save money.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Because it’s cheaper than treating these materials as the radioactive waste they are. Companies like British Nuclear Fuels (which is currently taking apart an old uranium enrichment plant in Tennessee), can make a profit by selling contaminated metals to unsuspecting steel and scrap metal recyclers and manufacturers.

But that’s just the beginning. Atomic utilities and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy are working hand-in-hand to increase the amount of radioactive "recycling," weaken radiation protection standards, and allow utilities to conduct incomplete clean-up of contaminated nuclear reactor sites.

It’s all part of utility deregulation and restructuring: nuclear power currently isn’t cost-competitive with other energy sources. So many utilities are selling their reactors, for pennies on the dollar, to renegade companies like Amergen (Peco Electric & British Energy). These companies plan to slash their costs by firing workers and reducing safety margins. In addition, they are seeking weakened decommissioning standards that would allow them to leave behind contaminated reactor sites and "recycle" some reactor components (steel, concrete, etc.) into the consumer marketplace. This would save the companies literally billions of dollars, but at an unconscionable cost to public health.

Indeed, this issue is so essential to the nuclear industry’s plans that if "recycling" and weakened decommissioning standards are defeated, some reactors may simply shut down.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

First, write to the President and Vice-President, and demand that the President issue an executive order to ensure that no radioactive materials of any kind enter the consumer marketplace. (White House, Washington, DC 20500)

Second, write to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Washington, DC 20555) and the Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC 20460), and demand that they establish rules that make clear that NO radioactive materials must enter the consumer marketplace.

Third, write letters to the editor and op-eds to your local newspaper about this national scandal—your congressional representatives do read these.

Fourth, contact your local officials and ask them to pass resolutions against this practice. And contact the stores you patronize and ask them to a) agree to never knowingly sell goods made from contaminated materials, and b) to contact their own elected officials and demand that contaminated materials be barred from the marketplace, from landfills, incinerators, from anywhere but licensed radioactive waste facilities.

Fifth: Organize, strategize, mobilize! The key is to make the issue as visible and controversial as possible. Hold demonstrations, vigils and other actions at nuclear utility offices and facilities.

In the early 1990s, grassroots citizen action defeated a similar initiative called "below regulatory concern." Congress revoked that policy because people spoke up; now the nuclear industry and its allies in the government are seeking to reinstate this policy. But they can be defeated by citizen activity. We did it once, we can do it again!

Remember, that the makers of consumer goods do not want to use contaminated materials. But under the government’s guidelines, they may not even know if they are using them. The best way to stop this is at its source.