Hungary sludge reservoir at risk of collapse

[maddezmom]

Source: AP


AJKA, Hungary — The walls of a red sludge reservoir in Hungary were "very likely" going to collapse, the prime minister said Saturday as the government rushed to prevent another deluge like the one earlier this week that killed at least seven people.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the situation as "dramatic" and said the town of Kolontar, which sits next to the reservoir and was badly damaged in Monday's flood, was evacuated as a precaution because engineers have determined that the developing cracks could cause a whole side of the enormous container to collapse.

"Cracks have appeared on the northern wall of the reservoir which makes it very likely that the whole wall will collapse," Orban told reporters gathered at a fire station in Ajka, a city near Kolontar where many of its resident have been evacuated. "The wall is in very bad shape



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2010-10-09-2012233242_x.htm

[hlthe2b]

1. No words.....

How can humans be so damned stupid and irresponsible?

[Lars77]

2. Here's a nice photo for you

Looks like only a small part of it actually came out the first time.

[Odin2005]

5. OMG, That is NASTY!!

[Thor_MN]

6. Square corners are not natural, not surprizing where it broke.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. What did both the source of the sludge waste and the government THINK was going to happen as the

volume increased?

[TheMadMonk]

4. Just a guess, but looking at the way those two ponds are arranged...

...it appears the idea was to dry out the sludge and ship it somewhere. Maybe even an iron smelter since it's mostly iron ore anyway.

By appearances, those two ponds are/were too full, with no visible evidence of expansion, for them to be nothing but permanent dumps.