Your old jalopy may have a marvelous new use.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has an innovative remediation technology using 760 tons of iron filings recycled from old cars.

The ground-up auto engines will treat groundwater contaminated by solvents in an aquifer beneath the Savannah River Site 45 miles from Lexington County starting in November.

They will be mixed with a starch-like material and injected into 22 wells, each 12 feet apart. The high-pressure injection creates fractures in the subsurface rock, creating space to be filled by the mixture.

A 4” thick, water-permeable wall of iron filings will extend to its deepest point 135 feet below the surface.

Groundwater will flow through the 264 foot long, 23,000 square-foot metal wall to neutralize the solvents.

From 1954 to 1984, the site’s reactor produced tritium and plutonium as a Cold War nuclear deterrent. Solvents at the reactor and waste sites seeped into the aquifer.

Philip Prater, a Department of Energy scientist, said it is “designed to work for decades with little maintenance.”

He said the technology allows precision placement, intercepting contaminated groundwater.