In February 2014, an incident occurred at the Waste Isolation Pilot
Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico when a 55-gallon drum containing
radioactive waste popped its lid, contaminating 3,000ft of underground
tunnels at the facility before rising through the exhaust shaft to
escape in small quantities into the surrounding desert. The culprit, it
was later discovered, was cat litter. The litter was used by the Los
Alamos National Laboratory to seal a drum before sending it on to WIPP
for storage. The organic absorbent – with which concerns had previously
been raised – reacted violently with the nitrates in the waste and
caused the leak.
While the US Department of Energy (DOE) was
quick to downplay the immediate risks the leak posed to plant workers
and nearby communities, the long-term ramifications of the incident –
both in terms of direct consequences and wider implications – have added
salt to the open wound that is America’s ongoing nuclear waste storage
issue.
The plant, which has been used as a long-term storage site
for transuranic radioactive waste from US nuclear weapons research and
production since 1999, is not scheduled to resume full operations until
2021. The political and economic fallout from the incident could last
much longer, with significant knock-on effects for the nation’s fleet of
commercial nuclear plants.
Data: 21.11.2016
Fonte: www.power-technology.com
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