Posted on 10/26/2005 10:05:09 AM PDT by SmithL
PADUCAH, Ky. - A toxic gas may be corroding cylinders containing depleted uranium, a federal memo has warned several facilities that are involved in the government's nuclear program.
The memo was sent to nuclear facilities in Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth, Ohio, according to a report in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Residual amounts of phosgene, a chemical warfare gas, may have been left in "as many as" 309 cylinders in storage at Oak Ridge, 406 at Portsmouth and 1,825 at Paducah, said the memo from the Department of Energy's Inspector General's Office.
The phosgene gas, according to the memo's preliminary findings, could be present in cylinders the government acquired from the Army's Chemical Warfare Service in the 1940s and '50s.
The memo outlines several issues with the gas, including whether enough phosgene remains to endanger workers or the public, whether the gas will corrode the tanks and cause a leak and could there be a harmful reaction during a proposed conversion process.
Energy Department spokeswoman Laura Schachter said existing safeguards should protect workers and the general public. Any trace elements such as phosgene "probably have been dissipated" over the years, she said.
The Energy Department is building factories at the Paducah and Portsmouth plants to recycle and stabilize the depleted uranium hexafluoride in hopes of selling the fluorine that is mixed with it.
Oak Ridge contractors have shipped thousands of uranium cylinders to Portsmouth over the past year, but the ones suspected of containing phosgene - known as 30-A cylinders - remain stored outdoors at the East Tennessee Technology Park, a former uranium-enrichment plant.
John Shewairy, a DOE spokesman in Oak Ridge, said shipments have been stopped while DOE and Bechtel Jacobs Co., environmental contractor, assess the situation.
"We're looking back through the histories of these cylinders," Shewairy said. "Certainly, we're going to do everything to make sure there are no safety concerns. We believe it is very unlikely that there is any remaining phosgene, but we're going to take precautions to make sure."
Great! Poison gas and/or radioactive material release...
Glad I don't live in Tennessee.
My first thought was that there was a report that Rosie O'Donnel farted.
I checked Teddy "Sterno" Kennedy's travel schedule.
Paducah, Ky, Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Portsmouth, Ohio, are all at risk.
I used to live between Knoxville and Oak Ridge, and I'd go back.
I used to live in the model release plume area near PGDP in KY. No biggie.
There was more risk from the trains of acid in than there was from any release from the plant.
Some of the surrounding neighborhoods had new water systems courtesy of Union Carbide/Lockheed Martin/DoE because of trace contaminants that were undetectible until recent years. Not PPM or PPB, but PPT! But they got new water sources anyway.
Those facilities are almost models for industrial safety.
You mean as bad an actor as Steven Segal?
You will want to read this.
"...to recycle and stabilize the depleted uranium hexafluoride in hopes of selling the fluorine that is mixed with it."
This isn't the same as flouride, is it?
Naahhhh. That's depleted uranium. Probably less specific activity than was mined in the original uranium ore. I wouldn't want to be around phosgene, but in terms of radiation exposure from depleted uranium, you probably get more rads from lying in the sun for a few hours.
As would I.
Nope.
But that's a lot of mind control for you water. /tin foil alert
That isn't "babies breath" and I don't think it will make your teeth "whiter than white" either.
Regards,
GtG
Ping. You might be interested in reading this article.
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