A Lot of Baling, but Little Recycling

What was once envisioned as a major recycling project at the Oak Ridge Department of Energy facilities in Tennessee is now being termed one of the world’s largest “cleanup” projects, with little recycling taking place.

One of the world’s heaviest-duty balers has been on the job for several months at the Oak Ridge site, but the machine is now being referred to as a compactor, as most of the 72,000 tons of demolition material emanating from Oak Ridge has been landfilled.

“Our overall project is about 61 percent complete,” says John A. Christian Jr., vice president of the demolition project for BNFL Inc. in Oak Ridge. “To date, we’ve cleared 72,000 tons of material from the Oak Ridge site. Work in the two remaining buildings is well underway, with the projected completion date for the entire project set for April 2004,” adds Christian.

The structures and equipment at Oak Ridge were rich in metals, including a large amount of stainless steel and other alloys. The Oak Ridge site served for decades as a research center for nuclear-related research and uranium enrichment operations conducted by the Department of Energy.

The original intention by BNFL was to recoup some of the demolition costs by selling the scrap metal to consuming markets.

But radioactivity safety advocates, initially, and then trade associations representing steelmakers and scrap recyclers began questioning the idea of putting so much potentially radioactive scrap metal onto the market. The federal agencies overseeing the Oak Ridge project eventually decided to forego the sale of most metals to the scrap market.

The metal being generated at Oak Ridge is still being processed by a heavy-duty baler made by Harris Waste Management Inc., Peachtree City, Ga. The machine, powered by 2,200 tons of hydraulic force, can process 58 tons of metal per hour and compress pieces that measure 26 feet by 14 feet by 6 feet into cubes less than 10 inches thick in any one dimension, according to BNFL.