Organic kitty litter aparently caused nuclear waste accident

[Shalcker]

TLDR Summary: Kitty litter was used to stabilize nuclear waste, old clay litter was fine, at some point they switched to new organic kitty litter that acted as slowly-burning fuel with resulting pressure build up rupturing nuclear waste container.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...waste-accident
or
http://rt.com/usa/161168-cat-litter-...ico-radiation/

For months state and federal government has been looking into an incident involving radioactive waste at a disposal site in New Mexico. Now, Investigators believe the culprit may have been the wrong kind of cat litter.

In February the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsband, New Mexico was placed on lockdown prompted by the detection of radiation. The underground nuclear waste dump is the only such facility in the entire country.

An accident investigation report put out by the Department of Energy in April delved into both the immediate causes, as well as a lack of safety culture leading up to the accident.

The radioactive leak itself is believed to have occurred some 2,000 feet underground, at one of the facility’s waste-storage vaults. Contamination was detected as it reached the surface air, where air filters kicked in as a precaution, and workers were shut out of the facility.

Investigators now say that the 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste which burst open inside WIPP may have contained the wrong kind of cat litter. According to a report by NPR, cat litter is a commonly used product in nuclear waste disposal. The litter is dumped into nuclear waste drums to stabilize volatile radioactive material.

"It actually works well both in the home litter box as well as in the radiochemistry laboratory," James Conca, a geochemist from Washington state, tells NPR. Unfortunately, in this case “it was the wrong kitty litter.”

Somewhat ironically, contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory seem to have packed the Cold War-era nuclear waste with organic, rather than clay cat litter. Organic litter, unlike the traditional variety, is made using organic material, which carries with it chemicals that can react with the nuclear waste, reports NPR.

"They actually are just fuel, and so they're the wrong thing to add," Conca says. Investigators believe the litter caused the nuclear waste drum to slowly heat up "sort of like a slow burn charcoal briquette instead of an actual bomb."

How such a critical oversight crept into something as seemingly worthy of careful disposal procedures remains unclear.

For his part, Ryan Flynn, New Mexico’s secretary of the environment, has said that the precise cause of the radioactive alert is not 100 percent clear. At the same time, Flynn seemed to tacitly accept that a serious oversight had occurred with scientists at Los Alamos.

"How come nobody caught this and raised a red flag?" asked Flynn. "I'm frustrated."

Flynn has said that more than 500 drums of nuclear waste may contain the wrong type of organic cat litter, though they seem to be relatively safe underground, though dozens of drums still remain at the Los Alamos site, along with another in West Texas. The drums in Texas have reportedly been placed in protective containers for added safety.

New Mexico’s WIPP facility, built atop a vast salt basin, was built to permanently house radioactive waste for tens of thousands of years. The dangerous materials stored there are the byproduct from nuclear research and the production of nuclear weapons.

The recent leak at the New Mexico compound has brought the issue of nuclear waste back into the limelight. There is currently a mounting stockpile of spent fuel produced by commercial nuclear reactors, which are today stored in-house.

The DOE attempted to develop a new underground waste site in Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and in 2002 the plan was approved by Congress. However, during the Obama administration funding to develop Yucca Mountain was terminated, for reasons which the US Government Accountability Office stated were “political” rather than technical or safety-related.

Compounding the issue, say researchers with the DOE, is a minimal budget and the federal government's Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which prevents the agency from looking at alternatives from Yucca Mountain, reports nature.

As for the present cat litter mix-up, "ultimately [the waste is] the responsibility of the Department of Energy," says Flynn. "It's also now their responsibility to clean it up and fix it."

[Super Kami Dende]

I knew they were planning something.

[Deleted]

I knew it.

Cats have always been disaster hungry little shits.

[roflwaffle]

that's guna be a classic

[Kalis]

Why are people blaming the kittens?

This clearly the fault of those damned hippies and their organic crap!

[Noomz]

I knew it.

Cats have always been disaster hungry little shits.

Aaaaaww! That image is amazing. Holy shit that is a strong image. British soldier in WW2, no?
Really, that image is mindblowingly amazing. In the middle of a war, dug down in a fox hole with a machinegun, a man smiles at an oblivious kitten playing with his trigger finger like it doesn't want him to shoot.
Where is this image from?

[Deleted]

Aaaaaww! That image is amazing. Holy shit that is a strong image. British soldier in WW2, no?
Really, that image is mindblowingly amazing. In the middle of a war, dug down in a fox hole with a machinegun, a man smiles at an oblivious kitten playing with his trigger finger like it doesn't want him to shoot.
Where is this image from?

Yeah, was in WW2, soldier in question was most likely English or Canadian and the cat is almost undoubtedly deaf; At least, that's what the people on Reddit said as those guns make a ton of noise.

It's one of those images which make you think that those people who died by the hundreds of thousands, were just normal people like you or i, i had a big grin when i saw it though

I'll try and find the Reddit source though, iirc it was in /r/history, will look for it as i saved it some time ago.

[Deleted]

Why are people blaming the kittens?

This clearly the fault of those damned hippies and their organic crap!

Heh, I was just going to say something about that stupid trend of everything having to be more or less "organic".

[Deleted]

Aaaaaww! That image is amazing. Holy shit that is a strong image. British soldier in WW2, no?
Really, that image is mindblowingly amazing. In the middle of a war, dug down in a fox hole with a machinegun, a man smiles at an oblivious kitten playing with his trigger finger like it doesn't want him to shoot.
Where is this image from?

You sure see a lot of stuff that isn't there in the picture, the mind indeed is a powerfull thing.

[delus]

This is what happens when you don't use products for their specified use.

[Noomz]

Yeah, was in WW2, soldier in question was most likely English or Canadian and the cat is almost undoubtedly deaf; At least, that's what the people on Reddit said as those guns make a ton of noise.

It's one of those images which make you think that those people who died by the hundreds of thousands, were just normal people like you or i, i had a big grin when i saw it though

I'll try and find the Reddit source though, iirc it was in /r/history, will look for it as i saved it some time ago.

It brings tenderness and humanity to the worlds worst war. It's very touching. The kitten also symbolizes absolute innocense that's put into a situation not of its own making.

And yes, I recognize that gun. That's why I thought he might be british, because they used those guns.

THanks man, I'd love to know the source.

- - - Updated - - -

You sure see a lot of stuff that isn't there in the picture, the mind indeed is a powerfull thing.

I think we've got a cynic over here. Do you have some kind of need to be a downer or what's up?

[Deleted]

It brings tenderness and humanity to the worlds worst war. It's very touching. The kitten also symbolizes absolute innocense that's put into a situation not of its own making.

And yes, I recognize that gun. That's why I thought he might be british, because they used those guns.

THanks man, I'd love to know the source.

- - - Updated - - -



I think we've got a cynic over here. Do you have some kind of need to be a downer or what's up?

http://karmadecay.com/r/gifs/comments/o7uo3/wwii_cat/

Best i can do, someone suggested an attache from the press or something was alongside them and may of used this as a news reel type of thing; But it's just speculation, i'd find it credible though, as film during that era was pretty rare.

[Afrospinach]

Yeah, was in WW2, soldier in question was most likely English or Canadian and the cat is almost undoubtedly deaf; At least, that's what the people on Reddit said as those guns make a ton of noise.

It looks like a bren gun, yeah I think they are loud. Poor cat, I kind of hope it was deaf.

[Powerogue]

Why are people blaming the kittens?

This clearly the fault of those damned hippies and their organic crap!

Specifically whoever thought it was a good idea to replace the litter with something else without telling anybody.

[RaenavenBlacksun]

Specifically whoever thought it was a good idea to replace the litter with something else without telling anybody.

I agree with that.

Hubby's cousin was in that general area when this happened, and when she got back to Texas she had to go through radiation screening.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

It looks like a bren gun, yeah I think they are loud. Poor cat, I kind of hope it was deaf.

If it wasn't deaf before, it definitely was afterwards.

[Aitch]

Why are people blaming the kittens?

This clearly the fault of those damned hippies and their organic crap!

That's what the kittens want you to think.