RE: [GreenYes] radioactive scrap policy review & comments

For those interested in pursuing the issue of radioactive scrap I suggest accessing the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. website (attached below). They have had a lengthy dialogue with the DOE regarding radioactive waste in steel scrap and have generated several articulate position papers on the subject. From the standpoint of a recycling advocate I have been attempting to include information in relevant sections in architectural specifications for steel and steel products. It would appear that a dose rate of .1 millirem/year would be appropriate. Lingering questions remain in respect to how such information is provided and the protocol from scrap recycler to mill, to supplier to fabricator. Originally I had asked for certification of a maximum level of radioactivity in steel bur this was most certainly naive on my part since the mechanisms that are required to fulfill this information are not readily available. Perhaps a more realistic approach would be to ask for a certificate that the recycled content portion of steel had been furnished by a scrap dealer that is normally engaged in the identification and "treatment" of radioactive waste. Or, as I suspect, is this still asking for information that can never be easily discernable? Or have any A/Es on the list ever added such language to specifications?