• Forester@yiffit.net
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    6 months ago

    Since your articles behind a paywall, I cannot read it. However, I can guarantee you as what you’re describing was in a barrel. It was low level waste. So likely a mixture of propellants or other chemicals that had been exposed to a reactor environment and then disposed of in a sealed barrel. High-Level nuclear waste is solid metallic-like substances that are encased in glass, steel and concrete. There’s nothing to explode.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      6 months ago

      Not paywalled for me, but here you go-

      The dump, officially known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, was designed to place waste from nuclear weapons production since World War II into ancient salt beds, which engineers say will collapse around the waste and permanently seal it. The equivalent of 277,000 drums of radioactive waste is headed to the dump, according to federal documents.

      • Forester@yiffit.net
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        6 months ago

        The information you provided was not sufficient so I googled

        The suspect drums contain nitrates and cellulose, which are thought to have reacted to cause the explosion in February

        It was low level waste mostly americanum dissolved into the mixture of nitrates and cellulose. The barrel did not explode as much as the lid popped off.

      • IamtheMorgz@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        WIPP is for low level transuranic waste from DOE projects, just FYI. Not super toxic stuff. They ship it in these super tough containers that they test by dropping on a spike and putting in a furnace. Wild to watch.