8,700 tons of radioactive barium sulfate
May 10, 2016 6:50 AM   Subscribe

Deep inside a landfill, where it's wet and there is no oxygen, you wouldn't expect a fire. But they can happen. And they can happen a few hundred yards from buried radioactive waste.
posted by Chrysostom (18 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I wonder if subterranean landfill smolders could be used for some kind of electricity co-generation? Seems like kind of a waste.

Also: I predict Exciting New Battery Technology based on trash fires.
posted by nonspecialist at 6:59 AM on May 10, 2016


There are some who think extra radiation is good for the body. Maybe the radioactive waste dump next to the burning trash pit could be remarketed as a health spa. Breath in that radon for a nice peaked glow.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 6:59 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


8,700 tons of radioactive barium sulfate

I keep hearing that in Homer Simpson's voice.
posted by Gelatin at 7:08 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


There are some who think extra radiation is good for the body.
Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.
posted by Gelatin at 7:17 AM on May 10, 2016 [11 favorites]


I was confused for a minute but it turns out I was thinking of that OTHER nuclear contamination site near the airport in St. Louis.

Damn, St. Louis.
posted by indubitable at 7:28 AM on May 10, 2016 [5 favorites]


It does seem like that radiator that they talked about at the end ought to somehow be harnessed for power -- all that heat, going to waste -- but I'm sure that if I can think about it while reading a fivethirtyeight article, that idea's already been examined, beat to death, and discarded. I wonder why it isn't feasible? Just not really *enough* heat?
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 7:37 AM on May 10, 2016


I'm sad that I knew exactly what this post was about the second I read the title because this landfill is just a few miles from my house.

(Which, yes, if you've been following my comments for a few years, means that this smoking nuclear landfill surprisebomb no business or government agency can seem to fix or accept responsibility for, as well as the Coldwater Creek nuclear contamination site mentioned by indubitable above, are also just a few minutes' drive from Ferguson, Missouri, and that is not a coincidence; c.f. Flint, Michigan.)
posted by BlueJae at 7:46 AM on May 10, 2016 [8 favorites]


Environmental racism is a hell of a thing.
posted by ChuraChura at 8:33 AM on May 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


Also this article conveniently fails to mention that the company that owns the landfill, Republic, has been actively fighting in court for years NOT to take any action to stop the fire. They are only expanding the fancy radiator cooling system touted in the article because they recently lost their legal bid NOT to follow a Missouri Department of Natural Resources order to do so. And the company is still fighting the EPA's direction to install a physical barrier to separate the fire from the nuclear waste contaminated area of the landfill. Basically they have had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the Feds, state government, county government, local activists and local press into doing anything at all about this "hot spot" which Republic spokespeople continue to insist is not really a fire and not really spreading and not really near the nuclear waste and totally fine.

Personally I am angry with Republic for putting profits over the health of an entire community; I am angry at Mallinckrodt, the company that created this waste doing ore-processing work for the U.S. government, for washing their hands of this problem by selling waste to shady dealers decades ago, and refusing to take any responsibility for it now; I am angry at local government officials for ignoring and/or deliberately minimizing the scope of this problem for decades; but I'm really extra angry that the federal government has not just stepped in and purchased or seized the entire landfill site. This waste came from the Manhattan Project. The federal government was directly involved in both the creation of this waste and the failure to ensure it was stored properly afterward; the waste was created as part of a military project that was considered crucial to U.S. victory during the WWII, and as far as I'm concerned, America as a nation bears responsibility to see that it is finally properly safeguarded and contained. But that keeps not happening.

The Coldwater Creek contamination site, also caused by improper storage and dumping of Manhattan Project waste, has already been linked to cancer clusters and higher than average rates of thyroid disorders and autoimmune disorders in the entire North St. Louis County area (because the waste has contaminated and spread through an entire watershed). The EPA has already been involved in the long slow cleanup of that spill, and local and federal government officials are familiar with the history and causes behind Coldwater, so it's not like no one was aware of the potential for this other problem to arise. But now because none of businesses or government agencies involved in this mess seem willing step in and take definitive and quick action to stop the spread of this fire, hundreds of thousands of people in a working-class community are facing the possibility that they may be advised to evacuate and abandon their homes at a moment's notice if the landfill starts spewing radioactive smoke into the air.

This is the secret state-side nuclear legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: byproducts from the creation of those bombs are still sickening and killing Americans in Midwestern suburbs today. And no one with the power to do anything about this seems to want to solve the problem or take the blame.
posted by BlueJae at 8:42 AM on May 10, 2016 [34 favorites]


...he says he has put out subterranean smolders in other landfills ... “But it’s really expensive,” he said ... One subterranean fire racked up firefighting costs of half a million dollars in just five days ... most landfills are owned and paid for by a single, relatively small entity ... putting out a subterranean smolder in a landfill — as opposed to just managing it — could drive a company to bankruptcy.
Surely the capitalist masters of the universe who own the waste management companies will have bought insurance for this very thing by the blinding beam of their own enlightened self-interest, right?
I wonder if subterranean landfill smolders could be used for some kind of electricity co-generation?
There are even better candidates which, as far as I know, have never been exploited in this way.
posted by Western Infidels at 9:07 AM on May 10, 2016 [4 favorites]


There are even better candidates which, as far as I know, have never been exploited in this way.

I knew it! This is an election thread!
posted by srboisvert at 9:36 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hah, thanks for reminding me of another little tiny thing the Republic engineer interviewed by 538 seems to have forgotten to mention, Western Infidels! Republic Services is not a "relatively small entity." "Republic Services, Inc is the second largest non-hazardous solid waste management company in the United States," per Wikipedia.

This article is poorly researched to a surprising degree for a site that claims to focus on intelligent analysis of facts and statistics. And yet I can't help but feel glad that at least this problem is being mentioned by a nationally read site.
posted by BlueJae at 9:38 AM on May 10, 2016 [9 favorites]


BlueJae, your comments are something that people need to hear. I wonder if 538 would publish them/make corrections if someone contacted them?
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:36 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


There are some who think extra radiation is good for the body.

I knew it! This is an election thread!


Hillary Clinton: she'll save children, but not the British children.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:38 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


which Republic spokespeople continue to insist is not really a fire and not really spreading and not really near the nuclear waste and totally fine

thisisfine.jpeg
posted by BungaDunga at 1:19 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just so that it's clear, Bridgeton is the next neighborhood over from Ferguson, with the airport dividing them.
posted by overhauser at 1:22 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


  I wonder if subterranean landfill smolders could be used for some kind of electricity co-generation?

Generation from landfill gas is a thing. Generally, you want as much control over the combustion as you can in a thermal plant. While you could harness the heat from a smoulder, they don't sound very common or well understood yet.
posted by scruss at 2:25 PM on May 10, 2016


I knew it! I knew it! I knew the company involved were going to be corporate bastards, and Bluejae confirmed it.

God bless capitalism and America!
posted by BlueHorse at 10:52 PM on May 10, 2016


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