| Title | Kitty Litter to Blame for Nuclear Waste Leak | |
| Date | Wednesday April 01 2015, @11:43AM | |
| Author | CoolHand | |
| Topic | ||
| from the mad-science-cat dept. | ||
An article from livescience lets us know, "If you're trying to stabilize nuclear waste, don't use organic kitty litter."
Always use regular cat litter!
Further quotes:
Investigators confirmed that a 55-gallon metal drum of nuclear waste burst open after it was packed with the wrong kind of cat litter.... Kitty litter isn't just used to absorb urine; it's long been used for industrial purposes, too. Traditional cat litter is usually made from inorganic silicates that can stabilize nitrate salts found in nuclear waste.... When the drum in question was packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, it was filled with organic kitty litter called Swheat Scoop, which, as the name suggests, is primarily made with wheat.
I guess one should always test substances before using them to contain radioactivity:
DOE officials concluded the contents of the drum were "chemically incompatible" and that gases built up over time, causing the lid to burst open after it was stored at WIPP.
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printed from SoylentNews, Kitty Litter to Blame for Nuclear Waste Leak on 2024-04-16 09:29:15