They say allowing the metals to be recycled into other items puts the public's health at risk.
"It's dispersing radioactivity into everyday items," said Diane D'Arrigo, radioactive waste project director at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington. "It could be in the braces on your kid's teeth. It could be in the car you're riding in."
Supporters of recycling say it is a useful way to dispose of materials as Cold War-era facilities are decommissioned. They argue levels of contamination are too low to pose a health threat.
Both sides were represented Thursday at the latest in a nationwide series of public hearings on the subject that the Bush administration is holding to gather testimony as it decides whether to lift the ban.
The Energy Department estimates surplus metals currently in its inventory and materials generated over the next 35 years will total more than a million tons.
The department could probably save money by recycling and selling the metals rather than disposing of them in some other way, said Richard Meehan, an Energy Department official at the nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
But Meehan said the savings wouldn't be so great as to give the agency a profit. "Clearly there is not a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," he said.
The Energy Department says the largest amount of surplus metals comes from uranium enrichment plants in Oak Ridge as well as Kentucky's Paducah plant and a Piketon, Ohio, facility. The agency says the most common types of metals found there are carbon steel, stainless steel and nickel.
Representatives of those metal industries also spoke out against recycling scrap metal from nuclear sites Thursday.
"While health physicists and government officials may be convinced that public perceptions of radioactive risk are exaggerated, these perceptions are very real," said Neil King, an attorney who represents the nickel industry. King added that such perceptions would influence consumer decision-making. Associated Press