You may have heard the devastating news back in February 2014 when a nuclear waste drum burst open in New Mexico’s underground cavern. The Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) drilled through a salt deposit below the deserts of Carlsbad, New Mexico which would be used as a nuclear waste dump. The US Department of Energy (DOE), who funds WIPP, suspended operations of the nuclear waste dump after the incident in order to investigate the matter further. After investigations, the report concluded that the nuclear waste cleanup will cost US taxpayers more than $2 billion. So what happened? The Business Insider looks into the findings from the investigation and reveals the culprits of the disaster to be a bag of organic kitty litter and an instructional typo.
 
Organic Kitty Litter Culprit
 
Thankfully no one was in the WIPP as the nuclear waste drum burst open, but the cavern’s air ventilation system did release some of the gases outside of the facility, causing 21 workers to be exposed to low doses of radiation. About 7.5 lbs of material vaporized upon explosion of the drum. Some the drum’s contents included radioactive isotopes of americium, plutonium and uranium, which were by-products of nuclear weapon production in the Cold War-era. These radioactive contents mixed with nitric acid and salts, triethanolamine and sWheat Scoop organic kitty litter, resulting in a dangerous explosion.
 
The fact that organic kitty litter was used versus inorganic kitty litter seems to have made the difference. The wheat based kitty litter contains plant cellulose, which can burn. On the other hand, inorganic kitty litters are primarily clay-based and non-reactive. When dealing with nuclear waste, kitty litter is used to soak up radioactive fluids. And the mishap of using organic kitty litter instead of inorganic kitty litter resulted in the perfect ingredients for a bomb.
 
Fateful Typographical Error
 
Prior to reaching the WIPP facility, the nuclear waste is brought to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to be packed into drums. Although it was in the lab where the radioactive bomb starting ticking, the human error occurred far before that. The DOE report states that as the LANL was updating their procedural manual, they relied on handwritten notes which called for organic kitty litter to process waste with nitrate salts, instead of using the inorganic variety. Unfortunately, the error wasn’t caught soon enough to prevent one of nuclear waste drums from exploding.
 
Costly Cleanup  
 
With any nuclear mishap the cost to cleanup can be hefty. The DOE predicts the direct cleanup costs to be about $244 million and the new WIPP air ventilation system to cost between $270 million and $400 million. And since no nuclear waste will be held at WIPP as the cleanup continues, there are additional costs to deal with the backup of waste. The LA Times predicts the cost to be $200 million per year if the facility needs 7 extra years to operate, summing up to be an extra $1.4 billion in costs. The DOE predicts that the WIPP facility can start entombing waste sometime in 2017, however, the exact time frame remains unclear.
 
What is also unclear are the costs the DOE might have to incur for the temporary storage and inspection costs of nuclear waste drums they’re unable to take in. Currently WIPP is the United States’ only facility which acts as a disposal for nuclear waste known as transuranic (TRU) waste. So how the DOE and WIPP plan to cope in the meantime is yet to be known. And unfortunately the mishap will also dig into the pockets of taxpayers.
 
The Inside Scoop on Nuclear Waste
 
After hearing about the WIPP disaster you might be thinking, why in the world are we storing nuclear waste which has the potential to explode, expose us to harmful radiation, and cost the country’s taxpayers billions when things go awry? What it comes down do is our society’s energy needs. Nuclear power has been generated as an alternative to using greenhouse gases. It has been used to power our lights and heat our homes without relying on fossil fuels. Although nuclear energy reduces our society’s usage of fossil fuels, it can pose other problems such as nuclear waste disposal. The Conserve Energy Future website outlines the dangers we must consider when relying on nuclear power to fuel our energy “needs”:
 
1)      Long Half Life
The products of nuclear fission continue to be radioactive for thousands of years after they’ve gone through a reactor. The high-level waste materials cause the most concern because of its long-term radioactivity compared to low-level waste and intermediate-level waste.
 
2)      Storage
Permanent geological repositories have been developed to act as a long-term storage site for nuclear waste. Nuclear waste gets sealed in large steel and concrete drums and put in these underground facilities. This may seem foolproof, but as we saw from the WIPP incident, the drums are volatile and have the potential to explode
 
3)      Effects on Nature
In the event of an explosion or leakage, humans and wildlife are prone to radiation exposure. Depending on where you live and your proximity to a nuclear reactor or waste disposal site, your health could be at risk.
 
It is important to be aware of the risks nuclear energy poses to the environment, your health, and also your wallet. As we go about our daily routines we don’t always take the time to think about our energy consumption and their implications. But maybe after the WIPP mishap and cleanup effort we can start to see the negative effects and begin to question whether our heavy reliance on energy is worth all of the taxpayer money to clean up the mess.