http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/oct/0 ... copper-is/
OAK RIDGE — Nine 10-foot-high magnetic coils, once part of the World War II calutrons that enriched uranium for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, are up for sale.
The attraction to bidders, however, is apparently not the history of the Manhattan Project units, but rather the value of the metals. Each of the "D-ring coils" reportedly contains 11 tons of copper. Copper has been trading at $3.15 to $3.25 a pound in recent days.
Even though the magnets are located at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, they belong to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. UT-Battelle, the Department of Energy's contractor, is proceeding cautiously with the sale.
According to Jeff Smith, the deputy lab director for operations, "We've been working for many years to disposition this equipment."
Because they were once associated with production of nuclear weapons, the magnets are subject to all sorts of restrictions and export controls.
Even though steps have already been taken to ensure that the coils could never be operated again, the purchaser must follow specific guidelines on how to destroy the coils — cutting them in half — before the metals can be recovered and sold. The purchaser and all parties involved in their transportation and handling must be U.S. citizens, keep the D-ring coils under wraps and safeguards until they're destroyed, and then provide photographic proof of the cutting within two days of completion.
"The seller reserves the right to be present during the destruction," UT-Battelle said in the bid documents.
Only prequalified bidders were allowed to bid on the magnetic coils, and ORNL would not release the names of the eligible bidders or discuss how many bids were received or how much money is expected from the sale. According to UT-Battelle documents, the bids were due by 2 p.m. Aug. 17, but there apparently have not been any awards made so far.
Smith indicated that the lab wanted to sell the nine large-sized coils as a single lot, not individually. Each of the calutron coils weighs about 65,000 pounds. In addition to the copper conductors, there are about 43,000 pounds of carbon steel in the casing and center coil.
Whoever buys the old coils will also have to address some environmental requirements. The coils at one time contained insulating mineral oil — code-named Z-Oil during World War II. Even though the oil was removed and the interior rinsed, there is still some legacy of polychlorinated biphenyls that will be dealt with at an EPA-approved smelter, according to the bid instructions.
There also is the possibility of radioactive contamination, which Smith said was associated with the Z-oil and not related to the uranium-enrichment activities. The contamination in the Z-Oil sludge and residual sediments will have to be cleaned up, but Smith said that would not affect the ability to sell the recovered metals on the open market.
The lab official said the coils do not come under the moratorium that was declared years ago by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to prevent radioactively contaminated nickel recovered at K-25 and other uranium-enrichment plants from being sold commercially.
"Once they disassemble (the coils) and reclaim the copper, they will be able to do what they want with it," Smith said.
ORNL spokesman Bill Cabage said the magnetic coils were once housed in Building 9204-2 (Beta-2), which began operating in 1944. The units were removed from service in 1947, and reportedly have been stored outdoors at Y-12 for many years.
During the war effort, Y-12 used calutrons, developed by E.O. Lawrence, to separate the isotopes of uranium and concentrate the fissionable U-235. The system employed very strong magnetic fields — placing the coils on either side of the vacuum tank containing the uranium mixture — to bend the path of the uranium atoms in the stream, separating the heavier U-238 atoms from the U-235 atoms. This process would be repeated over and over again in the calutrons, placed side by side on so-called racetracks, until desirable amounts of U-235 could be collected.
© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
