The ongoing disaster of contaminated metal from India shows no signs of ending anytime soon.  Governments all over Europe and beyond continue to sound the alarm as metal processors, foundries, machine and metal parts makers alike are finding their raw and finished metal stocks radioactive.  Levels are not insignificant, in some cases exceeding 70 microSieverts per hour.

The problem is consistent with long held opinion about the weakness of Indian controls over raw material recycling stocks.  Indeed, local waste disposal firms have more often than not, neglected to implement strict controls, rather preferring to look the other way.  This lax oversight is coming home to roost in the form of tainted reputation and lost business.

In a way it’s unfair for Indian firms to suffer since the contaminated source material usually did not originate in India.  Indeed, western industrialized nations have been indiscriminately dumping their polluted metal waste material to the emerging world because in-country disposal is both hazardous and expensive.

Now the major importers of finished metals are scrambling to filter inventory and install screening devices like proximity Geiger counters that can measure radiation levels in trucks and other bulk carriers.  Handheld radiation detectors are also being ordered en masse to allow scrap metal testing of even small scrap bins.