Loading ...Fire at Oak Ridge Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility Contained
At the risk of diverting attention away from more important issues and some really big fish to fry, here is an update on that fire at the Y-12 Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge.
“Hours after the fire, officials said all evacuated workers were accounted for and no injuries or contamination was found.”
“The building’s air monitors did not go off, which meant no radioactive material was released, officials said. As of that afternoon they said they did not know what caused the fire or the extent of the damage.”
“This is an ongoing investigation,” said Gene Patterson, Y-12 spokesman. “We are still in the process of figuring out exactly what that timeline is on what happened this morning.”
I am wondering if some of the recent fires at food processing plants, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities might have been caused by nanoparticles? My understanding is that one of the major risks with processing of nanoparticles is fires/explosions. You might be familiar with dust fires/explosions in grain elevators and silos.
For additional information regarding safety, health and environmental issues related to processing of nanomaterials, see this Cornell University publication:
https://ehs.cornell.edu/research-safety/chemical-safety/specific-chemical-hazards/nanomaterials
“Fire, explosion and other unexpected reactions involving nanomaterials are the main safety hazards. Materials at the nanometer scale may unexpectedly become chemical catalysts and result in unanticipated reactions.”
Additional information released today regarding the fire at the Oak Ridge facility:
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/y-12-incident/51-24814bfe-e2fa-4560-a94e-b3def50504ed
Y-12 initially said it was responding to an “incident,” saying it began around 9:14 a.m. Wednesday. It later said the incident was a fire that started in the hood of one of its uranium processing buildings. No contamination has been reported and crews said the fire is contained to the processing equipment.
Oak Ridge City Councilwoman Ellen Smith studied radioactivity and its environmental impacts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
She said the metal form of Uranium they worked with at Y-12 is likely low in radioactivity and catches on fire easily.
“Uranium metal catches on fire very easily because of its chemistry,” Smith said. “It’s basically Uranium-238, which is one isotope of uranium that is extremely long-lived.”
Comment – The U-238 metal would need to be in the form of an aerosolized powder (metallic dust) in order for it to be prone to catching on fire.
The fact that the fire occurred within the confines of a (ventilation) hood, suggests that this was indeed the case.