Radioactive scrap triggers controversy in Kentucky

Some radioactive pipe scrap detected in Kentucky has stirred accusations that the first recycler to discover the contaminated metal may have deliberately shipped it to a regional competitor.

An online news report by WDRB-TV quotes the owner of Rusty Rooster Recycling in Louisville, Kentucky, as saying that Grade A Auto Parts “deliberately brought radioactive contaminated product and brought it to our lot, so we’d get into trouble where we sell the product.”

The report also says an inspector with the Kentucky Radiation Health Branch determined the scrap metal contains “unidentified radioactive material causing low levels of radiation.”

Grade A later came and repossessed the material from Rusty Rooster.

Brooks also tells the TV station that there are “multiple people that know” that Grade A was aware the scrap was radioactive before it sold it to Rusty Rooster, and another recycler in the Louisville area (who requested anonymity) contacted Recycling Today to claim the same thing.

Grade A has denied to WDRB-TV that it played any part in “sabotaging Rusty Rooster’s business,” and the company says it is “working to find out how it [received] the radioactive material in the first place.”

The WDRB report concludes by saying a Rusty Rooster inquiry with the Louisville police has not resulted in any charges being filed, and a spokesperson from Grade A reportedly commenting that “there is no requirement that scrap yards test metals for possible radioactivity.”