Skip directly to content Copyright © 2012-2016 Los Alamos Daily Post. This Site and all information contained here including, but not limited to, news stories, photographs, video, charts, graphs and graphics is the property of the Los Alamos Daily Post, unless otherwise noted. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the Los Alamos Daily Post and the author/photographer are properly cited. Opinions expressed by readers, columnists and other contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Los Alamos Daily Post. The Los Alamos Daily Post was founded Feb. 7, 2012 by Owner/Publisher Carol A. Clark. A yearlong investigation by government scientists has concluded that a major accident at a nuclear waste dump was caused by the wrong brand of cat litter. The U.S. Department of Energy has released a 277-page report into an explosion that occurred on Feb. 14, 2014, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. According to a summary of the report, the incident occurred when a single drum of nuclear waste, 68660, burst open.

As NPR reported shortly after the accident, cat litter was the chief suspect. The highly absorbent material is great at soaking up liquid nuclear waste, and it has been used for years in cleanup activities at the nation's nuclear laboratories. Unfortunately, workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, also in New Mexico, apparently switched from inorganic clay litter to organic litter. According to the report, workers put the brand "Swheat Scoop" inside drum 68660. "Experiments showed that various combinations of nitrate salt, Swheat Scoop®, nitric acid, and oxalate self-heat at temperatures below 100°C. Computer modeling of thermal runaway was consistent with the observed 70-day birth-to-breach of Drum 68660," the summary of the report concluded. In other words, the litter caused the drum to burst after it arrived at the dump, releasing radioactive uranium, plutonium and americium throughout the underground facility. WIPP has come under intense scrutiny since the accident for what critics say was a lax culture of safety and oversight.

But the Energy Department wants the dump to get back to work. It hopes to reopen it early next year. You’ll see why there’s really no better nickname for this state than the Land of Enchantment.electronic air cleaner trion 1. Welcome to the Land of Enchantmentdax electronic air cleaner White Sands National Monumentpurifier l'air appartement 2. The most appropriately nicknamed state in the country 3. Honestly, where else can you find a summer sunrise like this? Chaco Canyon National Historic Park 4. And a winter sunrise like this? 5. The most capable artist in the world 6. Given from now until the end of days 7. Could never create these stunning views 8. And breathtaking landscapes

9. The only thing more spectacular than a far off view of Tent Rocks 10. Is a close-up of Tent Rocks 11. The locals get the most enjoyment from the terrain Valles Caldera, New Mexico 12. Considering they know all of the best shortcuts 13. New Mexico natives may seem tough on the surface West Road, Los Alamos, New Mexico 14. But there’s no need to be intimidated 15. They all just like a little healthy competition 16. Don’t be surprised if they invite you out for something to eat afterwards 17. When the storms roll in, it might be best to cut your mealtime short 18. Because the New Mexico skies are known to crackle 19. Before they combust 20. And explode before your eyes 21. But when the clouds withdraw, it’s back to sightseeing again 22. And rock gazing 23. With your colorful New Mexico friends 24. They’ll show you sand that looks like snow White Sands, New Mexico 25. And snow that looks like sand

26. New Mexico doesn’t need man-made monuments Bisti Badlands, New Mexico 27. It creates its own 28. And even the youngest of us are encouraged to enjoy them 29. Hurry up and find a good spot for yourself 30. Before everyone else shows up Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Preserve 31. Because as the last of the haze drifts through the mountains 32. You and your friends will be treated to one last amazing scene Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico 33. As the day draws to a close 34. And the sun sets on the Land of Enchantment Feature image source: Flickr user Rei Hardt < Previous Next > San Clemente Homes For Sale La Jolla Homes For Sale Mesa Homes For Sale Homes For Sale In Newport Beach CA Homes For Sale Sacramento Homes For Sale Carlsbad CA San Jose Real Estate Summerville SC Real Estate Homes In Atlanta GA Charleston Homes For Sale Homes For Sale In Woodstock GA

Homes For Sale Katy TX The Woodlands TX Real Estate Homes For Sale Round Rock TX Fort Worth Real Estate Fredericksburg VA Real Estate New Homes In Chesapeake VA Real Estate Richmond VA Homes For Sale Naperville IL Virginia Beach Condos For Sale Ashburn VA Homes For Sale Homes For Sale Chicago Huntington Beach Real Estate Homes For Sale In Palm Springs CA Houses For Sale Las Vegas Houses For Sale In Henderson NV Homes For Sale In Cary NC Homes For Sale Chapel Hill NC Homes For Sale Arlington TXEarlier this year, a violent chemical reaction at a New Mexico facility that stores waste from the making of plutonium bombs broke open a storage drum and sprayed the waste into the air, leading to the closure of the repository.Fortunately, the incident on Feb. 4 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M., happened at night when operations were limited; no workers were injured beyond a very small radiation exposure, and only a very small amount of radioactive waste leaked into the environment.

But the reaction, which forced the closure of the site, came as a blow to the country’s efforts to clean up old nuclear weapons manufacturing sites and has forced the government to take extraordinary measures to prevent a repetition. The reopening of the waste repository will stretch into next year and cost at least $551 million, according to the Energy Department.The price could jump even higher. The State of New Mexico is nearing a decision on fining the Energy Department for its safety lapses at the repository — the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M. — and at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the plutonium waste was packaged in a way that ultimately led to the accident. The storage drum was one of many filled there as part of a cleanup campaign.In addition, the Energy Department has taken extraordinary precautions with dozens of similar containers, in case they also burst and spew their contents. Some of them have been buried at the repository, in rooms that are now being sealed, and others are in reinforced temporary storage at a site intended for low-level waste, nearby in Andrews, Tex.

The lapse reflects a problem that has plagued the weapons complex for years — radioactive materials should not be mixed with organic chemicals because the radiation generates explosive gases. It raises questions about the Energy Department’s ability to apply what it has learned over decades of painstaking, mistake-ridden stewardship of the leftovers of nuclear bomb manufacture.“I don’t know how you can look at the facts themselves or any of the subsequent investigations and not have serious questions about the effectiveness of management and oversight at Los Alamos National Laboratory and WIPP,” said Ryan C. Flynn, the secretary of the Environment Department in New Mexico. His staff is in the unusual position of drafting a proposal to fine the federal government because the Energy Department violated its state environmental permit.Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that the Energy Department does not know what is in many of the waste containers it has filled over the years.

The department has begun a review of how it packages plutonium wastes at Los Alamos and its laboratories at Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Oak Ridge, Tenn., said Frank Marcinowski, the deputy assistant secretary for waste management. Control over waste packaging at Los Alamos was recently shifted from the Energy Department’s weapons program to its environmental management division.The February leak has also cast doubt on the Energy Department’s safety calculations. Robert Alvarez, a nuclear waste expert and a former special assistant to the energy secretary, said that a safety analysis conducted before the repository opened predicted one such incident every 200,000 years; the mine has been open for 15 years. “What makes this event so disturbing is that radiation went half a mile up the shaft into the open environment,” he said. Twenty-two workers were exposed to small amounts of radiation. Mr. Alvarez said he was surprised by the safety problem. He said he had considered the repository as a possible disposal site for tons of weapon-grade plutonium, long-lived radioactive waste that had been headed for recycling.

The Energy Department had planned to turn the weapons plutonium into reactor fuel as a way to dispose of it, and broke ground on a plant in South Carolina to make that conversion. But the Obama administration recently decided that the factory was too expensive and wants to halt work on it.Now Mr. Alvarez says that he is not so sure that burial at WIPP is safe. “I feel like I drank the Kool-Aid,” he said.Some of the repair costs for the repository, which has been closed since February, are highly uncertain, including a new ventilation system, with an estimated cost of $65 million to $261 million, and a new shaft for exhausting the air from the plant, at a cost of $12 million to $48 million. Simply analyzing the plant’s safety will cost $5.4 million; independent assessments of readiness will cost $10 million, according to the department’s recovery plan. No one is talking about expanding the repository, which has gone from a model of smooth operation to another troubled Energy Department plant.

The February incident was not the first time that a drum from Los Alamos had exploded; one did so at the lab in November 2008. According to a report last month by the inspector general of the Energy Department, the event — technically a “deflagration,” an extremely fast burn that falls short of an explosion — was caused by a mixture that was “known to be inherently hazardous.”Some of the wastes were liquid, and technicians had been using a clay commonly used as kitty litter to solidify them for burial but switched to an organic compound, which caused the chemical reaction that led to a buildup of hydrogen. Several opportunities to catch the error were missed, according to the report.While “the event did not appear to involve an explosion,” the report said, it generated enough heat to breach the lid and damage surrounding objects. A separate accident investigation board is still at work.But the Energy Department is preparing to reopen the repository in 2015. While workers had been filling underground rooms with barrels and then sealing them, the new plan is to seal rooms immediately, on the chance that more barrels could blow up.