Explosion at Tenn. nuclear weapons plant Thursday, 9 December 1999 2:55 (GMT)

(UPI Focus) Explosion at Tenn. nuclear weapons plant OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Dec. 8 (UPI) - Ten workers were injured on Wednesday in a chemical explosion at a Department of Energy nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. Officials said seven workers were treated at the Oak Ridge Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and three workers were hospitalized. Authorities believe the explosion occurred after a volatile sodium- potassium mixture used as a cooling agent in the casting of nuclear warheads spilled into the bottom of a furnace. Plant officials said the workers were exposed to limited amounts of radioactive contamination because of depleted uranium in the crucible. Bob Van Hook, president of Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, which operates the facility for the Department of Energy, said nothing was released from the site that would have affected the public or employees. Van Hook said about 50 people were evacuated from the million-square- foot building where the explosion took place. The building has been sealed off for investigators. The Energy Department's assistant secretary for safety, David Michaels, said a "type A" investigation of the incident would be headed by David Stadler, the DOE's acting deputy assistant secretary for oversight. --

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), December 09, 1999

Answers

LINK

http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=34386

crikey! don't you sleep, Nikoli?

-- edu (org@gov.mil), December 09, 1999.

possibly related:

Commercial Reactor To Sell Tritium

-- edu (org@gov.mil), December 09, 1999.

the New York Times' version of the occurrence:

10 Hurt in Tenn. Cleaning Accident

-- edu (org@gov.mil), December 09, 1999.

reprinted without permission and without intent of monetary gain:

10 Hurt in Tenn. Cleaning Accident

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

Filed at 7:34 p.m. EDT

By The Associated Press OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- Ten workers were injured in a chemical explosion at a nuclear weapons plant Wednesday while cleaning an area that has been shuttered since 1993.

Three workers were hospitalized for burns or smoke inhalation from the explosion at the Y-12 plant. The others were treated and released.

The building where the explosion occurred houses a portion of the plant's enriched uranium operation, which was shut down for five days in November because of safety problems. But the explosion was in a different section of the building and no nuclear materials were affected, officials said.

The workers were removing an old crucible used in casting nuclear weapons parts. The explosion occurred when they were attempting to mop up a sodium hydroxide alloy that had spilled.

The alloy might have reacted with moisture, but the exact cause of the explosion was unclear, said David Page, a spokesman for the Energy Department.

Y-12, created as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project in World War II to build the first atomic bomb, today makes warhead components for the MX missile system and is the primary uranium storage site for the nation's nuclear arsenal.

The entire 5,300-employee plant was shuttered in 1994 for safety deficiencies. DOE and managing contractor Lockheed Martin have been slowly restarting the plant, section by section.

-- edu (org@gov.mil), December 09, 1999.