Another Nuclear Waste Leak In New Mexico - Contractor Pulled to "Focus On Core National Security In

www.examiner.com...
NUCLEAR WASTE LEAK CONTAMINATES COUPLE DOZEN LOS ALAMOS WORKERS
"The Los Alamos National Laboratory does, in fact, use kitty litter in the storage of radioactive nuclear waste. The problem may be found in the difference between organic and inorganic kitty litter. The 22 Los Alamos workers were contaminated after a radioactive waste storage barrel leaked. Officials say a switch by Los Alamos from inorganic to organic kitty litter may have helped fuel the "heat event that popped the lid off the barrel.

"This switch may have caused the radiation of 22 Los Alamos workers and an indefinite shutdown of the nuclear waste dump. The Department of Energy (formerly known as the Department of Defense) has shuttered indefinitely the government’s “only permanent repository" for nuclear waste left over from decades of nuclear bomb building."

NOTE: The Department of Energy has NEVER been known as the Department of Defense! According to Wikipedia, the DoE was formed in 1977 from the Federal Energy Administration (FEA).

"Officials have yet to pinpoint what caused a barrel of waste at Los Alamos to breach, but the contractor running the lab at the time of the "mishap" has been pulled from the project and reassigned to focus on "core national security interests."

NOTE: What?! A contractor who didn't know the difference between organic and inorganic kitty litter is not being fired - just "reassigned to focus on core national security interests?" What exactly would that be?

"Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz ordered the program be moved from the National Nuclear Security Administration to Office of Environmental Management. And, as a result of the radiation leak, four of the facility's directors have been reassigned."

NOTE: So the Los Alamos Nuclear Storage is being "moved" from under National Nuclear Security Administration supervision - to the Office of Environmental Management? Why?

I'm not suggesting another conspiracy - not yet, anyway. This may just be business-as-usual for stumble/bumble Team Obama. But I DO look forward to reading later and more explanatory articles on this. Written by someone who knows that the DoE has NEVER been under the Pentagon ....

a reply to: MKMoniker

Methane gas generated from the decay of organic material created enough over pressure to "pop" (whatever that means) the lid off.

I wonder if it was a poof or a bang?

Wonder how many barrels they used "organic" Kitty litter in?

Goes to show how simple mistakes can create significant problems.

oh dear dude your definitely on there watch list for this one,,stars and flags is the least i can do

a reply to: intrptr

Thanks for the comment!

"Goes to show how simple mistakes can create significant problems."

Very true. But if you've got a contractor trained in "nuclear waste", how they missed something that significant about "kitty waste" is a little strange. (Maybe they're married to the person who wrote the article, and thinks the DoE used to be the DoD.)

a reply to: stuthealien

Actually, Dudette here. But thanks for the warning.

At this point I'm thinking "cascade of mistakes" and a badly written article. And there are crying 3-year-olds in the news all the time who can't board a plane because their name is on a Watch List.

So ... I'm not worried.

I don't know what the Inquirer is about but this story is total BS. The wrong KITTY LITTER? Calling the department of energy, the former department of defence?? Re-assigning the one who made the mistake to "core national security interests??

This story reads like something from The Onion.

Don't worry about nuclear energy, it's safe and "green" and the kitty liter is organic and cheaper by the pound!
Way to go guys, what a great thing for our environment!

originally posted by: MKMoniker
a reply to: intrptr

But if you've got a contractor trained in "nuclear waste", how they missed something that significant about "kitty waste" is a little strange. (Maybe they're married to the person who wrote the article, and thinks the DoE used to be the DoD.)

I'm not sure about this but I don't think they actually use "Kitty Litter' as that product is advertised. The main component of inorganic kitty litter is Bentonite (simple clay) that is used in a wide range of industry for other purposes.

Somebody may have used the term kitty litter to sensationalize the story. I have heard it before, too. However, somebody may have overlooked the fine print as there are lots of organic material that are also absorbent.

Heres a kitty litter link to what kind of ingredients they use to soak up your cats odors. if they confused some other absorbent material with bentonite, or if the bentonite had organics mixed with it , then that could be why this happened.

But like I said, I don't really know.

"Stupid is as stupid does." --Forrest Gump

The people that handle waste may not be the ones in charge of engineering or the materials department.

Kitty Liter Ingredients

Thanks for all your comments. I know it's an odd story, but it IS true. Here's a similar story from May 2014:

www.theverge.com...
RADIOACTIVE KITTY LITTER MAY HAVE RUINED OUR BEST HOPE TO STORE NUCLEAR WASTE
(5/23/14) "Until February, many experts suggested that the best place to put (nuclear waste) was a facility about 40 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). For 15 years, WIPP has operated as the first and only permanent, deep geologic nuclear waste storage facility in the country, holding "low level" radioactive materials — mostly clothing and tools exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons production — in steel barrels more than 2,150 feet below the Earth’s surface.

"But earlier this year two emergencies brought that suggestion — and WIPP’s future — into question. And now it seems kitty litter may be to blame."

(PHOTO of exploded steel drum) "Organic kitty litter likely caused a steel barrel's seal to puncture at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, NM. The damage and the resulting radiation leak could close the facility, experts say."

AH HA! Now the story becomes more clear. It's no longer a "storage facility," but a "contaminated site". Is THAT why it was transferred from the DoE to the Office of Environmental Management?

"Officials have yet to pinpoint what caused a barrel of waste at Los Alamos to breach, but the contractor running the lab at the time of the "mishap" has been pulled from the project and reassigned to focus on "core national security interests."

Isn't it obvious ?

Why yes when dealing with NUCLEAR waste it really makes an effing difference between 'inorganic' and 'organic kitty litter. !

Bunch of Morons they are.

And by that I mean the church of climatology, and this 'green' movement.

I don't know whether or not to laugh or cry.