(WIPP) Nuclear Waste Leak Traced To --- Kitty Litter
Yes. The wrong kitty litter was probably used to treat some of the nuclear waste recently disposed in the world’s only deep underground nuclear waste repository, near Carlsbad in New Mexico. Cat litter has been used for decades in radiochemistry labs and nuclear facilities to stabilize certain radwastes, like liquid scintillation solutions, evaporator bottoms, and other materials that have nitrate salts in solution. Nitrate salt solutions can ignite when they dry out – which is why it’s tricky working with nitrate solutions in the lab and why you need to make sure they don’t dry out, something many a chemistry student has found out the hard way. So you need to stabilize nitrate solutions before they dry out, or prevent them from completely drying out.
Traditional cat litter is made from various inorganic geologic silicate minerals like diatomaceous earth, zeolites or bentonites, materials that are excellent in absorbing and stabilizing chemical species like nitrates, ammonia, and urea. This is the very reason we use minerals for cat litter. Unfortunately, someone working with this waste, before it was to be shipped to WIPP, used a new “green” cat litter, made with materials like wheat or corn. These organic litters do not have the silicate properties needed to chemically stabilize nitrate the correct way.
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When the event occurred all experts began to examine anything that might have caused it, from the preparation of drums for storage to the performance of WIPP. The first idea to come to mind was that something caused a drum to open. The only thing we could come up with was that a large slab of salt rock fell from the ceiling of Panel 7 and crushed one or more drums. But that is definitely not what happened. Instead, nitrate salts in the wrong litter probably dried out sufficiently to burst open a drum, and some material was entrained in the airflow out of the room. Immediately, the underground Continuous Air Monitor alarmed, and the ventilation switched to HEPA filtration, allowing only a small amount to get out and intersect 21 people and some air filters. The levels of Pu and Am released were a million times less than any environmental concern, thousands of times less than any health concern, and 40 times less than ordinary background.
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WIPP and the salt host rock had nothing to do with the drum that burst. A fire three weeks prior had nothing to do with the drum that burst. Transportation had nothing to do with the drum that burst. The salt itself had nothing to do with the drum that burst. It was indeed providential the drum was in WIPP when it burst.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/05/10/nuclear-waste-leak-traced-to-kitty-litter/
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