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Eek: Report reveals '06 nuke spill in Tennessee
knoxnews.com — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission revealed in a new report to Congress that a nuclear chain-reaction accident nearly occurred 14 months ago at a nuclear fuels processing plant in Tennessee.
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- TheThestral, on 10/11/2007, -16/+6I wish they would come out with Eek! The Cat DVDs soon. Dare I wish for Eekstravaganza!?
- EBFoxbat, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1Yeah, about that guys, uhh sorry, my bad.
- geneticlone, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5" it is likely that at least one worker would have received "
Dang I hope the guy is alright they probably have like 900 statments in his contract that says he is responsible for his injuries caused by these types of events. :-- jrefenes, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2re-read the article. It says "would have recieved..." not that he did. They were talking about if the fluid had gone critical, meaning, if a reaction had started, which it did not.
- FRANKeB, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2Now, how can we make it look like Saddam had something to do with it? Maybe we can pin it on his brother Al, Al Qaeda.
- NinjaBoy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9you'd think the containers would sit inside other containers with some sensor if the first container started leaking.
- 0crabby0, on 10/11/2007, -5/+10Call me crazy - but I don't think that 9 gallons, of highly enriched uranium solution should be stored in a glove box.
- orielbean, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6No, think like hazmat boxes where you put your hands in plastic gloves to run an experiment. Not a car glovebox. How could you fit 9 gallons into a car glove box...
- 0crabby0, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1To Oriebean:
Thanks for the info, I was thinking something large and metal - like a gang box where maintenance workers and welders store items.
A glove box should be safer then? Wouldn't the glove box have a bottom? So it couldn't leak?. - ISIfunded911, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1FTA: "Criticality," or a sustained nuclear chain reaction that releases radiation, was possible as the uranium pooled in both the box and the elevator pit, the NRC said.
And: The incident at Nuclear Fuel Services was one of three mentioned in the report.
What about those other two incidents? And what about the probabilities of one incident going very very wrong? Over 33 years and 4 months that is 100 incidents.
- cjennings, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5I live in Johnson City, hopefully i'm upstream... It doesn't sound like that big of a deal in the article, but how can they wait 14 months to disclose that kind of information?
- jrefenes, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16because there was no danger.
- orielbean, on 10/11/2007, -9/+3Because it's a National Security (TM) issue and that means big daddy doesn't need to tell you anything. You might be a citizen, might be a terrorist, so they split the difference and don't tell anyone until it's way too late to matter.
- TubaTechno, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@orielbean
Wacko... - nukeworker70, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2If the general public knew what really went on in those places most would be really shocked. I do have to say though it's safer work than most anything you can do unless you just sit at home and do nothing all day long. The nuclear industry for the most part is very safe. I've been working in it for over 4 years now.
- hifiDesign, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Heh. My Aunt lives in Unicoi, not far from that plant. Really beautiful area. The bugs that live in that area, suffice it to say, are quite unusual. My uncle called some of them "nuclear gnats" because of their abnormal size and tendency to tear into your skin. Whether it was caused by mutation or not, I don't know, but I always got a laugh out of that. Ironically, there is also a fishery nearby where they hatch trout (I believe). To my knowledge, none of them look like anything on the Simpsons, but you never know...
- Yukos, on 10/11/2007, -7/+3I live in East Tennessee, I wonder if this accident might be related to the alarming amount of baldness in area-children?
- Rakoa, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1No thats from the 11 coal power plants in Tennessee
- 0crabby0, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4TVA, That's the Utility Al Gore buys his green power credits from?
Yeah, TVA just canceled a 17 million dollar scrubber upgrade to a EPA fined(aerial emissions) coal plant because "It wasn't needed".
- rncole, on 10/11/2007, -7/+11I love how the public likes to make a big deal out of all of these things, mostly because it's something they don't understand. Now, I'm not a Nuclear Engineer, but I did take 3 years of NE courses before I decided to switch to CE. Just the fact that this leaked out doesn't make it really that dangerous - there are tools and devices to determine the effects of the leak. If it's not dangerous, there's no need to make a big deal about it, the media just enjoys doing it.
Yes, there was a leak, yes, it COULD have been bad. Fact was, nothing happened to hurt anyone or anything, so there was no need to freak out and make a big deal about it.- jgzman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I agree with the above statement. I'm not a Nuclear Engineer yet, (but I'm studying to become one) and, as said in the article, there is no problem. There WAS danger, but it was averted. FTA: "(But) they were lucky, and we don't like them to be lucky, we like them to be careful." Lucky is not as good as careful, but it beats the hell out of unlucky.
And if I'm reading right, there was never any large danger. The worst that would have happened (less a meteorite strike or something would have been a large uncontrolled radiation source, WITHIN a controlled environment. Not an explosion, not even a leak into uncontrolled biosphere.
Still nice to know about these things, but I don't think it needs to be on the headlines. It seems they took precautions to see that it will not occur again. - Twango, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2I like to make a big deal out of it because it's something I do understand.
"they were lucky, and we don't like them to be lucky, we like them to be careful."
It took 25 years for the truth about the dead sheep in Utah. - rncole, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@twango:
from looking at your submitted stories and such, it appears you are anti-nuclear power or rather, anti-nuclear anything. Do you have a basis for your stance, other than reading about nuclear incidents online or taking the stance of others, such as formal training in the area of Nuclear Engineering or sciences? I ask, because people DO blow things out of proportion, and they try to make every nuclear incident, no matter how small, out to be another Hiroshima or Nagasaki or Chernobyl.
Take example, the Three Mile Island incident - this was a multiple failure incident, and hell *almost* broke loose. But it didn't. At the right time, someone with the right knowledge stepped up and figured out how to shut it down. Nothing really came of it other than having a broken reactor and a hell of a lot of media attention. There are sensors that are installed around anything that handles anything related to nuclear generation or waste to determine what exposure levels there are. If there's no public harm (be it either directly or indirectly such as would be leakage into a water source), then what's the point of making a big public fuss when a factory that's been around for half a century has a single incident, shuts down, re-engineers their operation, and makes sure that nothing was harmed or would come of it?
This is all similar to the reports that the media has for anything related to nuclear, because it makes people have an uproar and gives the media power. For example, I live in Knoxville, TN (actually only an hour and a half or so away from where this incident happened, and this article is from one of our local stations), and any time something happens at the nearby Oak Ridge - for instance a car has a fender bender on a nuclear site such as Y-12, the media puts out an article with a headline similar to "ACCIDENT AT Y-12", goes into the fact that Y-12 is a nuclear processing plant for weapons grade plutonium for a whie, then mentions it was a fender bender in the parking lot.
- jgzman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I agree with the above statement. I'm not a Nuclear Engineer yet, (but I'm studying to become one) and, as said in the article, there is no problem. There WAS danger, but it was averted. FTA: "(But) they were lucky, and we don't like them to be lucky, we like them to be careful." Lucky is not as good as careful, but it beats the hell out of unlucky.
- hmac, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Three hours from where I live!
Cool!
NOT. - mykos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4So it leaked into a completely protected that they were able to replace safely and easily? Frightening!
- 1randomnumber, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Inaccurate. There was no chain reaction, the solution didn't reach critical mass. It's not really that big of a deal. They disposed of anything contaminated, and covered anything that couldn't easily be disposed of (i.e. the elevator shaft) with concrete. Everything was done by the books, and there really isn't any danger, except for maybe the people working in the plant and cleaning it up.
- jgzman, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Actually, I get the feeling that they filled the shaft not because of contamination, but to prevent other spills from pooling in it.
- TubaTechno, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Leave it to the media to blow something out of proportion....
- justananomaly, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4im in ur ET plantz, tippin ur enrichd uranium solutionz
- Twango, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4If they didn't have disclosure laws, they could have a perfect safety record like France.
- dattaway, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1So what would happen if too much was in a puddle? Would it start to boil and try to seperate itself due to the heat?
- aroundtown, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3There's also radioactive materials in your smoke detector, inside your house.
- UnstableMind, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Well, they need to disclose that *****, I stepped on one of my old ones in the garage the other day. I didn't see any radioactive symbols or messages and I even poked around on it....I didn't notice that I was glowing or anything...
- Technopundit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Not ALL smoke detectors contain radioactive material.
Be informed, or be quiet.
- dumbblah, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Dulp!
- ccrook, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Buried as lame alarmist trash, like most digg articles.
- LonesomeFighter, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2if you got a problem you can either submit better articles, or leave digg altogether. But since you have stayed, i will assume you enjoy it.
- AWeeBitInsane, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1The US government is steaming mad over this. It's a missed opportunity. They could've blamed Iran, Al-Qaeda, etc. I'm sure the last thing they'll say is "oops". That was a fantastic opportunity.
- WaltDismal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I thought my Jack Daniels tasted a little 'special'. And 'cause it glows in the dark.
So, I wonder if the plant's rats will mutate and grow into giants, and eat sheep, and look like Al Gore?- hifiDesign, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Too bad Jack is made in a county far from there. Bone up on your geography, buddy!
- WaltDismal, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0@hifidesign. Perhaps so, but also the place where something is made is not always the same place the crops it is made from are grown. But I firmly stand behind the giant sheep-eating rats that look like Al, because I know I either saw it in a movie, or dreamed it. Either one is good enough for me.
- tictac888, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0How are we going to get anyone with super powers without a few radiation spills ?
- diggitdawg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Hmmm, so the report was released to Vice President Dick Cheney in March of 2006 and it is just now being publicly released. The incident might never have been released if not for a law requiring it. From the article, "The incident might never have been disclosed publicly if not for laws requiring the NRC to annually report "abnormal occurrences" of its license-holders to Congress." I'm shocked, just shocked, that the Bush administration didn't report this to Congress sooner.
- Technopundit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It's only a time of matter ...
- mpeg2tom, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1On the other hand, wind kills...
http://www.responsiblewind.org/reality/somerset_windmill_death.pdf
MEYERSDALE, Pa. - An Oregon company operating a Somerset County wind farm is facing $13,500 in federal workplace safety fines stemming from a worker who fell 60 feet to his death in September.
And I'm really trying to understand how the liquid could have gone critical if it was all stored together in the first place...maybe if it accidently fell into a can made of a good neutron reflector (like depleted uranium)?!?!?! Not too likely. - vhtrading, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1In Soviet Russia, nukes spill on you.
- AsylumAleikum, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"If a criticality accident had occurred in the filtered glovebox or the elevator pit, it is likely that at least one worker would have received an exposure high enough to cause acute health effects or death," the NRC report said.
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One has to be a dumbass to brand the incident a nuclear chain reaction.
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