How do you earn a LEED innovative credit in the pursuit of LEED Silver certification? By melting guns into rebar! The California Highway Patrol delivered 9,200 pounds of confiscated guns to the Nucor Steel plant in Seattle, Washington. The guns were melted along with heaps of scrap metal to be formed into rebar. Computerized hydraulics dropped three 22-inch diameter graphite electrodes into the scrap steel, and the melt begins. The rods use 6 mega watts of power to create an electric arc. 15,000 degree plasma surrounds the rods and liquefies 150 tons of steel in less than one hour. Molten steel pours form four ports below the furnace into extrusion molds. Steel billets are then extruded and cut by robotic torches on their way to the cooling rack. The billets are stacked in a staging area by magnetic crane. From here they will be drawn into rebar.The rebar will then be shipped to the project site, installed, and cast into the concrete tilt panels that clad the new California Highway Patrol Headquarters building on North 7th Street in Sacramento.