I just want to point out the other 'new' detail I noted, URS Corp. (which is now revealed to be the lead in the partnership operating WIPP) is a majority owner of Washington River Protection Solutions, the lead cleanup contractor at Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which is embroiled in a whistle-blower-firing blowup over safety.
Interesting.
On a satirical note, from the latter link on Hanford,
Tamosaitis, who was in charge of research and led a large team of scientists, had raised concerns about the safety of mixing technology that was critical to a nuclear waste treatment plant at the facility.
He was relieved of his management job, put in a basement room without a telephone or office furniture and given no work assignments. He was later fired
If the fact that he was 'Miltoned' has any bearing on WIPP, and this is the company partly also running things at LANL, well...jokes suddenly seem out of place.
just like in , The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
I am still aggravated at me that I did not try to get a tour of WIPP when they were building it.
The salt bed it is in is about a half-mile thick and 225 million years old IIRC.
There is also a nice usable Yucca Mtn site available. But much better for stuff to just sit all over the country according to the ecofreaks.
Probably just the pressure of being burried underneath 2,150 feet of anything would burst a barrel.
I feel safer!
Six months after the accident, the exact chemical reaction that caused the drum to burst is still not understood. Indeed, the Energy Department has been unable to precisely identify the chemical composition of the waste in the drum, a serious error in a handling process that requires careful documentation and approval of every substance packaged for a nuclear dump.
Given the meticulousness in segregating and/or inerting reactive compounds in regular hazardous waste along with it's commensurate documentation requirements I find it stretching credulity that anything other than someone purposely placing something like a strong oxidizer in a container calculated to erode over a period of time as the cause of this.
I have encountered a situation where an oxidizer was accidentally contained within a drum which turned out to have an absorbent that had carbon content significant enough to react (The personal protective tyveks and rubber gloves are probably still in the rafters there...) but I can't imagine that everything that could conceivably go into a drum containing plutonium waste would not have been checked in triplicate and modeled/simulated til the cows came home.
Then again, governmental/contractor stupidity does appear to have gone asymptotic these days.
In about 1991 IIRC Westingtonhouse was running the show and maybe the origional design contractor. After that it changed contractors at least twice likely more times. One contractor came in and started firing people with zero notice including some who had helped design the facility and got it up and going. IIRC that was about 7 or so years ago. My B.I.L. was one of them.
I am thinking a Mentos was dropped in the barrel....
Here are scientists testing the theory. You can tell because they are wearing white coats. (not crazy)
http://www.eepybird.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/geyser-generic.jpg
Something needed to be pointed out here as well is the actual containment as in the processing for long term storage mainly takes place elsewhere and then product is shipped to Carlsbad sealed. IOW the waste could possibly be sealed at a facility in Tennessee and shipped out to Carlsbad to WIPP for long term storage.
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