COMMERCE COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

January 12, 2000

Rep. John D. Dingell, Ranking Member of the House Commerce Committee, today commended Energy Secretary Bill Richardson for halting the unrestricted release of 6,000 tons of radioactively contaminated nickel from the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant, setting up a task force to review fully and publicly the Department’s policies, and asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to decide on federal standards.

Nickel is essential to the steel-making process which is heavily dependent on scrap metals. This nickel would have found its way into millions of products utilizing steel and nickel, such as food containers, silverware, orthodontic braces, belts, and earrings. Previous attempts by the NRC to set standards allowing unrestricted release of such material have been rejected by the public and Congress.

However, under a license granted – without public notice or comment – earlier this year to Manufacturing Sciences Corporation by the State of Tennessee, for the first time in U.S. history radioactively contaminated metals in large volumes would have entered the stream of commerce. Despite the fact that the NRC is required by its own rules to license the manufacture of all products containing radioactive material, the NRC has taken the position that it does not regulate radioactively contaminated products, but only those products in which the radioactive material is deliberately placed for a beneficial purpose. Rep. Dingell, Rep. Ron Klink, and Rep. Edward Markey have questioned the legality, logic, and public purpose of this position.

"Secretary Richardson has made the correct, common-sense, decision," Rep. Dingell stated. "Now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must finally do its job, or lose whatever meager credibility it has left."

Rep. Dingell pointed out that the Department of Energy, the NRC, and the State of Tennessee had all operated under a cloak of secrecy to attempt to recycle this metal. "When federal agencies deny public input into issues of great public interest – such as whether radioactive materials will be deliberately inserted in the products the public buys – they usually end up in trouble. I thank Secretary Richardson for his efforts to ensure an open review and debate."

(Contact: Reid Stuntz 202/225-3641)