We all remember the recent spate of nuclear commanders being relieved by the US military. But it seems bad leadership and\/or stupidity isn\u2019t limited to the military\u2019s nuclear community these days.<\/p>\n
Back in February, there were two incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) \u2013 an underground facility in a salt beds near Carlsbad, NM, that\u2019s 2000\u2019 below the earth\u2019s surface. It was built as a place for long-term storage of the nation\u2019s nuclear weapons-related nuclear waste.<\/p>\n
One of those incidents was a truck fire. OK, sometimes stuff happens.<\/p>\n
However, the other was a radiation leak. So, how did that leak happen?<\/p>\n
Well, it turns out that someone used the wrong kind of cat litter when preparing a batch of highly acidic nuclear weapons waste for storage at the WIPP. Rather than clay-based litter, wheat-based litter was used.<\/p>\n
Seriously.<\/p>\n
It turns out that this created a mixture that was quite volatile – it has been called \u201cakin to plastic explosives\u201d.\u00a0 After arrival at the WIPP, one such drum cracked open. Twenty workers received radiation exposure (of a low level, thankfully). The facility will require extensive work (to the tune of $500M) for decontamination and substantial time (estimates by the contractor operating the WIPP are 3 years, minimum) before resuming operations.<\/p>\n
So, the WIPP contractor eats it, right? After all, their guys screwed up and used the wrong stuff?<\/p>\n
Well, not exactly. It seems that Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) \u2013 not the contractor \u2013 prepared the drum of waste for shipment to the WIPP. It turns out LANL\u2019s supporting contractor, Los Alamos National Security LLC, was working in haste to meet a deadline for preparing Cold War waste for shipment that would give them a \u201cleg up\u201d in contract renewal negotiations. An internal investigation conducted at LANL blamed the error on \u201ca typo in a policy manual\u201d. It\u2019s unclear whether that policy manual was prepared by LANL government or contractor personnel.<\/p>\n
Four managers \u2013 apparently on the contractor side \u2013 were reportedly replaced at LANL since the incident. Whether this will have any effect on that contractor\u2019s contract renewal is at this point unclear.<\/p>\n
Some details of the WIPP and the original accident can be found here<\/a>. An explanation for the errors leading up to the mistake causing the leakage incident can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0 (Unfortunately, this is the short version; the longer version with more details is behind a pay wall.)<\/p>\n So, folks \u2013 no, it\u2019s not just the military\u2019s nuclear community that has its \u201csh!t in the wind\u201d these days. Looks like the rest of the Nuclear Kingdom has its share of problems too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"