Word: scrapped
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...this space-age garbage: six tons. Two-thirds of the nuts, bolts, oxygen cylinders, broken solar panels, dead satellites, spent rocket boosters and other litter is in geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles from the earth's surface, where it will remain indefinitely. One-third of the circling scrap is in low earth orbit, only 120 to 300 miles overhead...
...events that led to the disaster began last November. Sotelo, then a $35-a-week hospital electrician with a family of three, took a milk bottle-size, stainless-steel canister from the hospital's warehouse. Sotelo says hospital administrators had given him permission to sell leftover utensils for scrap. He heaved the canister into the back of a hospital truck and hauled it to a local junkyard, where a dealer gave him $10 for it. Unfortunately, Sotelo and the dealer were unaware that the canister was part of a radiography machine and contained a capsule that held approximately...
...area of hazard grew even wider as radioactive scrap from the junkyard was transported to two Mexican foundries, one in Ciudad Juárez, the other 220 miles south in Chihuahua. According to José Antonio Rotonda of the Mexican Nuclear Commission, radioactive pellets that had adhered to scraps in the truck fell off en route to Chihuahua, and eight pockets of contamination have been discovered between the two cities...
...Ciudad Juárez foundry, the scrap was turned into table pedestals that were shipped across the border but later tracked down. U.S. officials say they are almost certain that all of the contaminated legs were returned to Mexico. In Chihuahua, the junkyard material was converted into steel reinforcing rods, and according to Mexican officials, about 500 tons of this hot steel were shipped to the U.S. The rods were used in the construction of at least two houses near Farmington, N. Mex., and the owners had to replace their radioactive foundations. An additional 3,500 tons of steel remained...
...laying off 5,200 workers, the owners expect to save $750,000 a day. But the project will continue to eat up $1 million daily because of other expenses, primarily interest payments. Many investors hope the utilities will decide to scrap the reactor, which is 73% finished. Its twin, 23% completed, was tentatively canceled last month. Said Maine Public Utilities Commission Chairman Peter Bradford: "Something had to be done." The utility can only hope it did something soon enough...