Kitty Litter Chemistry

What? Yep! Thats right! I wrote this song for an organization called “285 Alliance,” a local nuclear safety watchdog group, for the 10th anniversary of a nuclear accident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. One of the drums packed at the Los Alamos Lab burst open while stored underground at WIPP and leaked radiation up the shaft and into the atmosphere, exposing radiation to about 20 workers. No deaths or serious illnesses fortunately. Anyway, a key ingredient in packing the drums before sealing the tops is laying in a coating of “clay-based” kitty litter. It helps absorb the waste somewhat. So someone ordered “organic” kitty litter instead, which reacted with the contaminants in the drum. Uh oh! Boom! Here’s the story.

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