A Nickel for your Thoughts

Waste has been used by creative minds around the country to produce unique works of art, foundations for golf courses, fuel for buses, and countless other wonders. So, to all of you creative minds I challenge this - find a good use for 15,300 tons of nickel.

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking input from industry representatives on the safe disposition of approximately 15,300 tons of nickel scrap recovered from uranium enrichment process equipment...(press release)

Okay, maybe we should leave that one to the experts. But talking about uranium enrichment and putting waste to good(?) use reminds me of a story.

In Obsessive Genius, author Barbara Goldsmith talks about the early days of radiation treatment when radium bromide was inserted directly into tissue with needles or in small pellets. Eventually a gold filter was added, making the treatment more viable. She tells this story:

Instead of disposing of the gold filter after each use as instructed, one laboratory worker took the gold and forged it into a wedding ring for his fiance.

Eventually she had to have her ring finger amputated.

I hope he bought her a very big diamond after that.