The Department of Energy has narrowed the number of drums with potentially reactive contents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from 678 to two.
One of them burst in February, releasing radioactive contaminants into the waste repository and keeping it closed to shipments since then. On Tuesday, a DOE official testified before a New Mexico legislative committee that Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have identified another drum with contents similar to the one that failed. Both contain waste repackaged from an older drum. It was filled with waste from the Rocky Flats plant generated in the mid-1980s that included bags of liquid and nitric acid, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Whether the contents of the second drum will cause a reaction is unknown, as scientists have yet to recreate the chemical reaction that caused the incident. They hypothesize that the nitric acid and a glove box glove contaminated with lead could have created a series of reactions that lead to the high temperatures needed for the kitty litter to react and create the conditions that cracked the drum.