Kitty litter eyed as possible culprit in New Mexico radiation leak
Source: Reuters
Kitty litter eyed as possible culprit in New Mexico radiation leak
By Laura Zuckerman
Tue May 13, 2014 10:50pm EDT
(Reuters) - Kitty litter used to absorb liquid in radioactive debris may have triggered a chemical reaction that caused a radiation leak at a below-ground U.S. nuclear waste storage site in New Mexico, a state environmental official said on Tuesday.
The waste disposal site, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from nuclear weapons factories and laboratories are buried in salt caverns 2,100 feet (640 meters) underground, has been shut down since unsafe radiation levels were first detected there on Feb. 14.
The leak of radiation, a small amount of which escaped to the surface and exposed 21 workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, ranks as the worst accident at the facility and one of the few blemishes on its safety record since it opened in 1999.
Investigations of the chamber where the leak occurred suggest a chemical reaction may have generated sufficient heat to melt seals on drums and boxes of contaminated sludge from the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, releasing radioisotopes such as plutonium, Energy Department officials have said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/14/us-usa-nuclear-newmexico-idUSKBN0DU04220140514?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=401
= new reply since forum marked as read
...none of the nuclear facilities operate with anything close to lab procedures, or they wouldn't have such lousy safety records, violations and in WIPP's case, possibly permanently injuring 21 workers for life.
As with all the other facilities in this country, they are leaking radioactive waste and water every single second of every single day. Hansford is the absolute worse no doubt about it, and WIPP is more worrisome because they don't seem to have a clue about what they're doing down there. But at least most of the waste is underground -- for now.
The sloppy safety track record at WIPP is little different than some of the others. For example, an Energy Dept Accident Investigation Board report says staff didn't know enough about vent safety bypass design requirements for the HEPA filter safety dampers for the ventilation system. Leakage was found later to have resulted from those unfiltered release of radioactive waste directly into the environment.
- What's worst about WIPP as far as I'm concerned, is that everyone downwind is vulnerable to alpha particulates in the air from the Plutonium and Americium bomb waste. That's what is crammed into all those old leaking barrels is nuclear bomb waste and green kitty-litter turning to nitrates and waiting for an ignition source. The WIPP is bad news just waiting to be reported.
During the decay of plutonium, three types of radiation are released—alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha radiation can travel only a short distance and cannot travel through the outer, dead layer of human skin. Beta radiation can penetrate human skin, but cannot go all the way through the body. Gamma radiation can go all the way through the body. Alpha, beta, and gamma radiation are all forms of ionizing radiation. Either acute or longer-term exposure carries a danger of serious health outcomes including radiation sickness, genetic damage, cancer, and death. The danger increases with the amount of exposure.
Even though alpha radiation cannot penetrate the skin, ingested or inhaled plutonium does irradiate internal organs. The skeleton, where plutonium accumulates, and the liver, where it collects and becomes concentrated, are at risk. Plutonium is not absorbed into the body efficiently when ingested; only 0.04% of plutonium oxide is absorbed after ingestion. Plutonium absorbed by the body is excreted very slowly, with a biological half-life of 200 years. Plutonium passes only slowly through cell membranes and intestinal boundaries, so absorption by ingestion and incorporation into bone structure proceeds very slowly. link
If consumed, americium is excreted within a few days and only 0.05% is absorbed in the blood. From there, roughly 45% of it goes to the liver and 45% to the bones, and the remaining 10% is excreted. The uptake to the liver depends on the individual and increases with age. In the bones, americium is first deposited over cortical and trabecular surfaces and slowly redistributes over the bone with time. The biological half-life of 241Am is 50 years in the bones and 20 years in the liver, whereas in the gonads (testicles and ovaries) it remains permanently; in all these organs, americium promotes formation of cancer cells as a result of its radioactivity.
Americium often enters landfills from discarded smoke detectors. The rules associated with the disposal of smoke detectors are relaxed in most jurisdictions. In the U.S., the "Radioactive Boy Scout" David Hahn was able to concentrate americium from smoke detectors after managing to buy a hundred of them at remainder prices and also stealing a few. There have been cases of humans being contaminated with americium, the worst case being that of Harold McCluskey, who at the age of 64 was exposed to 500 times the occupational standard for americium-241 as a result of an explosion in his lab. McCluskey died at the age of 75, not as a result of exposure, but of a heart disease which he had before the accident. link
- Rupert Murdoch runs AP and some kinda Canadian ''Sir'' billionaire dude owns Reuters, as I recall. And I'm sure they have mining investments......Mixing organic material with nitrates. Who could have guessed? 
