because......the DOE wants to offload radioactive metal scrap onto the open market so it can be used for making stuff you and I use, like pots and pans and forks and spoons......
Seriously? About those terrorists and guns, I really don't feel that threatened, unless maybe if some smelting of whatever the government [threw away/secretly embedded/strategically placed] ended up in firearms. What if you only take your Bushmaster out to lovingly stroke it and then put it back in the velvet lined case but Cesium 137 comes silently leaking out of it. What happens if you don't own a gun but instead opt for a hammer or a screwdriver? OR what happens if it is fashioned into some component of your refrigerator or washing machine? Or what if it is remade into a component of an assembly line that processes food? I mean geez, we have radon inspectors and lead paint prohibition and unleaded gas, but who cares if the government is going to distribute cancer death through the little things of everyday life?
Really? Our Department of Energy is ok with this? Is anybody ok with this? I am certainly not. The world has gone crazy. Even the WSJ thinks it's insane. Bueller?
Why we're even subjected to have to argue/make a case for restricting radioactive scrap from making it into the components of ordinary objects that can be purchased by the public, I have no idea. What's a government for?
Links to more links
Apparently Ed Markey is opposed to this as well as the WSJ. Not a peep out of anybody else so far. Is the government intentionally trying to kill us off?
Markey's Press Release because it has happened before and I guess it will happen again because.....government.
Are we now going to have to have household geiger counters? $^*&^%^WTF? Maybe we should have shopping geiger counters that we can take to Bed Bath and Beyond and Macy's and Walmart. Because no amount of radiation is safe, none, zip, nada, the null set.
You can tell the DOE to continue to keep its radioactive metal out of the commercial metal supply, commerce, and our personal items. You can demand a full environmental impact statement. Comment deadline is Feb. 9, 2013. Email to: scrap_PEAcomments@hq.doe.gov (with an underscore after “scrap_”). Snail mail to: Jane Summerson / DOE NNSA / PO Box 5400, Bldg. 401K. AFB East / Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185