Talk:Starmet Corporation

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search

OOOPSSSSSS!!! Forgot to log in!!!! AI 6/29/03 09:07 (EST)


How about this, Maynard?

Starmet Corporation Profile:

Starmet Corporation - http://www.nucmet.com/
2229 MAIN STREET
CONCORD, MA 01742 +1 978 3695410
+1 508 3694045

Starmet Corporation develops and manufactures a variety of specialty metal products using sophisticated metallurgical technology and metalworking processes. The subsidiaries of the company are Starmet NMI Corporation, Starmet Powders, LLC, Starmet Comcast, LLC and Starmet Aerocast, LLC. The company operates in three industry segments: specialty metal products, uranium services and recycle and depleted uranium penetrators. Carolina Metals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, is the world's only depleted uranium processing facility. Specialty metal products accounted for 38% of fiscal 1999 revenues; uranium services and recycle, 30%; powders, 22% and composite materials, 10%. The company expensed $250,000 towards Year 2000 compliance program as of April 2, 2000.


And this?: "Old Heat Exchangers to Stainless Steel Containers":

(Reprint from Carolina Environmental News, May/June 1996) Two years ago, Carolina Metals, Inc. of Barnwell, SC received 20 tons of stainless steel from Savannah River Site (SRS) to demonstrate the process to convert radioactively contaminated metals (RSM) into disposal containers. Currently, 16 100-cubic-foot containers have been manufactured and delivered to SRS, of which 13 have been inspected and accepted by SRS.

The demonstration is part of the effort by the Department of Energy (DOE) to reuse already contaminated metals such as stainless steel from reactor heat exchangers, piping, and other materials. The costs for burying these metals will reach millions of dollars. For instance, the estimated burial costs for the 28 excess heat exchangers which weigh 100 tons each is $10 million.

The other reason for the demonstration is to mitigate the legacy left from years ago when SRS manu-factured nuclear weapons. The containers in which the waste is stored are beginning to rust, and the long-term nuclear waste storage sites such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada and Los Alamos in New Mexico have not yet opened. The SRS needs to repackage these waste while trying to avoid purchasing and contaminating "clean" containers. In fact, the SRS is in the process of filling the first container with mixed waste (material that is toxic and radioactive) to test the durability of these stainless steel containers under such conditions.

The first container took about 1 ½ years from the time the metal was identified until it was delivered. However, according Bill Boettinger, manager of the Beneficial Reuse Program at SRS, the process can be cut down to six months when in a true industrialization program.

Manufacturing Sciences Corporation of Oak Ridge, TN is the other participant in this demonstration project. MSC was granted 40 tons of stainless steel to be converted into 400 55-gallon barrels and 250 85-gallon drums. These barrels and drums are currently being inspected by SRS.


BENEFICIAL USES OF DEPLETED URANIUM. Colette Brown. U.S. Department of Energy (1997): (page 8): "Nuclear Metals, Inc., (NMI) of Concord, Massachusetts, has entered into an exclusive world-wide license agreement to commercialize the DUCRETE™ process. NMI is currently installing pilot-scale equipment at its wholly owned subsidiary, Carolina Metals, Inc., of Barnwell, South Carolina."


DURABILITY OF DEPLETED URANIUM AGGREGATES (DUAGG) IN DUCRETE SHIELDING APPLICATIONS (2/03): (page 2): "Using DUAGG samples obtained from Starmet CMI (formerly Carolina Metals, Inc.)..."


DOE: "Depleted uranium has been a by-product of the SRS plutonium production cycle for approximately 40 years. There are approximately 36,000 drums of depleted uranium trioxides in 55 gallon drums stored in buildings across the site. Some of this inventory may be required through the year 2005 to dilute highly enriched uranium to low enrichment uranium as HEU inventories are stabilized. A recent engineering study, completed (1995) by a sub-contractor, Carolina Metals, Inc., had evaluated the storage of depleted uranium at the Savannah River Site."


South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Petitioner, v. Starmet CMI, Inc., Respondents: "Starmet CMI, Inc., formerly Carolina Metals, Inc., owns and operates a uranium processing and conversion facility on a site located at 365 Metal Drive, Barnwell County, South Carolina ("facility" or "site"). This site was originally licensed in 1982 under its prior name Carolina Metals, Inc. ... Robert E. Quinn is the chairman of the board of Starmet Corporation, with headquarters in Concord, Massachusetts. Mr. Quinn is the sole officer of Starmet Corporation and the sole director of its subsidiaries. Respondent is a subsidiary of Starmet Corporation. Starmet Corporation has several other subsidiaries: (1) Starmet, NMI, which is located in Concord, Massachusetts where it manufactures depleted commercial shielding products for medical and industrial purposes; however, its operations are winding down; (2) Starmet Powders LLC; (3) Starmet Commercial Casting, LLC; and (4) Starmet Ceralcast, LLC.[July 19, 2002. Presently, there is a cease and desist order issued by the State of Massachusetts against Starmet Corporation to refrain from any further shipments of radioactive materials to the Concord, Massachusetts facility. At this point, no bankruptcy action has been filed in the State of Massachusetts.]"