LANL says they now think there are 500 of those kitty litter "time bombs" sitting around WIPP, LANL and the temporary site in Andrews, TX.
This whole fiasco is going to be extremely expensive for NNSA and LANL to fix. I'll bet the final cost to handle it will make the $200 million security system screw-up out at LANL's TA-55 look cheap by comparison.
You have to wonder why these changes in the packing of the barrels were allowed, given all the heavy education about formality of operation and precise documentation of all steps for getting even the most mundane types of work done at the lab.
May 24, 2014 at 7:46 AM
I don't know about everyone else, but I have had it up to here with all of this manufactured "outrage" about everything that happens. This constant need to find someone to blame and to chop off his head is juvenile and demented. The sane response to problems is to identify why and how they happened, put corrective measures in place so they don't happen again, and move on. We have become a nation of self-absorbed, spoiled whiners. Give it a rest, already!
May 23, 2014 at 8:49 PM
Have worked in the Los Alamos Waste Disposition Project (WDP), I can tell you first hand that the entire LANL Transuranic (TRU) Operation was a "hurry up and rush it" attitude. It was a Chinese sweat shop to meet the deadline of the 3706 (cubic-meters) program and "follow the money to this PBI"! They need a Congressional Investigation of this.
Comments
Haste makes waste and waste makes haste.
May 25, 2014 at 8:27 AM
Anonymous said...
Who in the world at LANL authorized using organic kiddy litter in their transuranic drums? My 4th grade son knew better. It's too bad LANL lost all of it's competent engineers and scientists who knew better. All due to the conversion of LANL to LLNS, the first real price of "privatization".
All of these failures have had the common element that LANL knows best. This approach to work was wide spread in the UC days, but was not as evident for the initial years after transition.
Another evident change under Charlie is that LANL has become less of a national team player and withdrawn more to the mesa, with the resultant "we can do it all better" approach.
May 26, 2014 at 11:02 AM
Calm down. That sort of thing has happened under every Director since Agnew. It is nearly impossible to prevent completely, and has never resulted in demonstrable harm.
May 26, 2014 at 11:02 AM
How many personal vehicles did LANS have to acquire (via taxpayers) that were contaminated from this fiasco?
"Your cat may be at risk of sudden exothermic breakdown of his kitty litter, says Director of prestigious nuclear laboratory"
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/23848-radiation-release-from-federal-facility-still-stymies-experts
Basically, the critical difference is between mineral-based kitty litter and "green" kitty litter made from grains. The combination of grains and "nitrate salts" is suspected of being a culprit in unexpectedly opening the sealed drums
Give Charlie credit for keeping track of where the waste drums are located. At least it is not a typical LANL case of a few disks lost behind a copy machine, or a large number of classified files in temporary storage in a trailer with a drug dealer, or a gun just disappearing into thin air from inside an occupied guard shack.
May 28, 2014 at 2:40 PM
That God we can thank the Managers from Savannah River Site (SRS) who came to Los Alamos to shove everything but the kitchen sink in 55-gallon drums to meet the 3706 Program (cubic-meters) PBI for Governor Martinez and LANS.
May 28, 2014 at 2:45 PM
There are actually at least 500 at WIPP, a few hundred in Texas cooking aboveground in the heat, and at least 200 in double-containment which could result in a larger explosion. No worries...
Don't fear everyone, Charlie McMillan (LANL Director) appointed Terry Wallace to "take over" the Transuranic Program al Los Alamos. Wallace was wearing a t-shirt with the words: "Here I Come to Save the Day".
May 28, 2014 at 5:25 PM
Someone's idea of sick humor.
May 28, 2014 at 2:40 PM
Uh, ok, so what do you think should be done with it? Surely you realize it will continue to be created indefinitely? Nuclear power plants and the various nations' nuclear weapons programs are not going away. Are you going to plug your ears and keep crying "lalalalalala" until it all goes away?
I think you need to tone it down a notch. They are actually fire ants and only 6 feet tall. Get it right next time.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/05/25/response-to-nuclear-kitty-litter-is-moving-fast/
Where is the formality of operating and the deep understanding of nuclear chemistry? Perhaps LANL is no longer the Center of Excellence that they claim to be.
On the bright side, lawyers in the area just gained long term job security from the mistake.
May 29, 2014 at 10:34 AM
Sorry, the world is a little more complicated than that. It was how the waste was handled that caused the problem. The organic material caused the problem, and it was NOT part of the waste. Someone in the subcontractor organization made a serious error and should probably be fired for it. Maybe the LANL employees charged with overseeing the subcontractor's work should also be reprimanded or fired. It is certainly true that the Director bears responsibility for everything that happens during his tenure, but it is certainly NOT true that he is to blame for the problem. If you think the person who actually made the error bears no responsibility, but the Director does, I can bet you've never been in charge of anything, and that's a good thing.
Huh? Not sure what you are reading, but this comes out of the wild blue.
Nailed it, spot on.
May 29, 2014 at 1:41 PM
May 29, 2014 at 10:34 AM said: "...the actions of everyone working at the Lab...come to rest with the Director.
No personal responsibility on the part of individual employees, apparently.
May 29, 2014 at 1:33 PM
Who said there were no policies in place? You can have all the policies you want, and people will still screw up. I guess your attitude is that only the person at the head of the organization should have to pay any consequences, not the person who actually screwed up. As long as you never get put in charge of anything, you're golden, right? Great attitude.
May 29, 2014 at 3:19 PM
Ok, want to cite a criminal statute? Nope, I thought not. And exactly what "public" was "endangered"? And what evidence? Nope, none of that either. Ho Hum.
Lansce and... MaRIE !!!!
Oh, wait. The NNSA just said that they are shutting down the Lujan Neutron Center because it is of no real value. Never mind, get back to the dismal job of keeping the TA-55 operations in mothballs for another year and reading your new EnRoute magazine with those really cool pics of Charlie "GQ" McMillan.
You have to wonder if one reason no one had time to spend ten minutes looking at the elementary chemistry of the WIPP waste is that they were all too occupied working to make sure that Charlie looked good. All this could have been avoided under different leadership.
Yeah, enroute to managerial disaster at LANL.
Hey Charlie, I guess the world revolves around you apparently!