Transportation of Waste Containers Made From Radioactively Contaminated Scrap Metal

Millions of tons of potentially recoverable materials have accumulated over the years at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites and facilities now undergoing environmental restoration. These materials include thousands of tons of scrap metals that can be recycled into new products, to conserve natural resources and avoid costly disposal. While some recoverable materials can be free-released and possess a significant market value, other materials are contaminated either on the surface or in mass, which limits their reuse or recycle in the open market. The DOE environmental restoration program is considering a national policy for recycling radioactively contaminated scrap metals (RSM) within the DOE complex. The existing inventory of metals in scrap piles has been variously estimated to include from 150,000 to 400,000 tons of RSM. A large percentage of this is radioactively contaminated carbon steel (RCCS), the focus of the policy analysis. The \"Recycle 2000\" policy under consideration is investigating the fabrication of RCCS into ingots or waste containers to provide for better management of DOE wastes. Risks and costs of transportation would be associated with shipping the RCCS from the DOE metalgenerating sites to the processing (including fabrication) or disposal sites and shipping the products (i.e., ingots or waste containers) from the processing site(s) to disposal or use sites. The DOE environmental restoration program has initiated an assessment of the risks and costs associated with transporting RCCS and its potential products throughout the DOE complex.