Workers recount tragedy at China steel factory (molten steel shower incident)

AFP ^ | 04/19/07 | Robert J. Saiget

[endthematrix]

How quick do you think the Chicoms will get this plant up and running? As quick as the mess can be cleaned. If this was in the USA, the plant would be closed immediately, at worst. Or sitting dormant for months, at best.

[null and void]

Hard to say. The body is ~60% water, there might be chunks that were blown far enough away by the steam explosion to extract DNA.

It was unpleasent, but very quick.

Prayers for their souls and for their families.

[csvset]

What a catastrophe.

"I just ran, if I had hesitated for a moment, even to turn and look, then I might not have made it out of there alive."

Sometimes you just have to literally " run for your life ".

[Bender2]

Re: How quick do you think the Chicoms will get this plant up and running? As quick as the mess can be cleaned. If this was in the USA, the plant would be closed immediately, at worst. Or sitting dormant for months, at best.

Gadzooks! You are correct...

Then the Liberal Democrats would outlaw Second Hand Steel...

And enact a 5-day Waiting Period for molten steel...

Harry Reid would declare we lost the steel war and have us go back to using wood instead of metal...

Algore would applaud the ending of the American steel carbon footprint that has damaged the Earth almost beyond repair...

[Centurion2000]

Whoa! Would that it had been Cho instead of these innocents

Cho is dealing with fires that make this feel like an ice cube right about now.

[BenLurkin]

How is it the meeting room was that close to the blast furnace?

[Bender2]

Re: The Chicoms, OSHA or unions!

I am temped to add the Corps of Engineers...

But I know that is due to many, many years ago my being a quality control engineer for a construction firm building a logistical materials storage facility at Kelly AFB and finding the Corps has kicked back a 103 page report on concrete testing. This was precomputer days and it took a week to find the error: a comma blunder on a footnote!

BTW Millee, I went fishing today...

And there was a fictitious character there!

The Old Man... and the Lake!

[XEHRpa]

> Talk about irony...

You mean... IRON-y

[XEHRpa]

> Swimming in a liquid steel pool

Gollum... gollum.

[bleach]

You may want to check the manufacture date before you buy your next made in China grill at Walmart. Chinese anyone?

[jiggyboy]

China needs an OSHA and labor unions so we can level the playing field.

NFW that will happen old sport. That's one of their "competitive advantage"s.

[jiggyboy]

But I’m confused, didn’t Rosie O’Doughnut tell us that “This is the first time in history (on 911) that fire has ever melted steel.”? Wonder how that steel in China got so hot?

Ah, easily explained: steel isn't melted by "fire", it's melted by heat, i.e., it's the difference between cooking your food on an electric burner instead of a gas range. Everybody knows that "heat" is hotter than actual flame.

[Kitten Festival]

Eric Hoffer once noted that the minute unions are not distinguishable from management or the state, workers have no protections whatsoever. Unions, for all their flaws, are important, but only if they are autonomous and independent. Anything else leaves workers powerless.

[expatguy]

"At that temperature, there will be nothing left of the bodies—they will have been completely cremated."

I thought so as well... which is why I don't understand this ~~

"authorities said they would have to use DNA testing to identify the victims...All that was in the room was a 70-square-meter block of steel..."

Can someone explain this to me...

What are they going to DNA test? The block of steel?

And secondly, wouldn't the DNA have been completely destroyed as well?

Thanks

[arthurus]

"It hit a platform car and then started spilling molten steel in the direction of the shift transfer room where they were having their safety meeting.

Talk about irony...

...and bad puns.

[rottndog]

I don’t think there is anything in or immediately around the “block of steel”.

The only remains that possibly could have survived were anything that was blown clear, as null and void pointed out in #42.

[texas booster]

Chemical bonds have a certain stability based on the type of bonding. Some
bonds are quite strong The following are covalent bond strengths.

Bond Bond Strength(kJ/mole); Bond Bond Strength (kJ/mole)
Cl-Cl 239 H-Cl 427
H-H 432 C-H 413
N N 941 N-H 391

Bond strength can be overcome by adding heat...The GC and AT bonds in DNA
are hydrogen bonds (non-covalent) and can also be overcome with heat.

these hydrogen bonds are about 71 kilojoules per mole...relatively weak (but
strong in large numbers) and can be broken and reformed by heating and
cooling. This is the secret behind the polymerase chain reaction.

Faletra, Peter, Argonne National Labs

[expatguy]

Um... cool.

care to translate that?

[null and void]

AH!

[texas booster]

DNA breaks down in heat.

Somre parts are strong and withstand high temperatures, some part of DNA are not as strong.

Ask anything beyond that, better get Physicist or grey_whiskers to help.

Now, how they get into a 70 square meter clump of cooling steel to recover said DNA, I have no idea.

That is what? 215 feet by 215 feet? What wall is going to withstand that much mass and heat?

Wonder how thick the resulting slag is in that room?