国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

World / US and Canada

Inspectors locate contaminated area in US nuke dump

(Xinhua) Updated: 2014-04-19 15:53

HOUSTON -- Inspectors have located the contaminated area of a nuclear waste repository in the southern US state of New Mexico, which has been shut down for more than two months due to a radiation leak.

The discovery was made during the fourth visit by inspectors into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an underground dump located near Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico, local TV KOB quoted energy department officials as saying Friday.

Tammy Reynolds, deputy recovery manager of the US Department of Energy, told media that on Wednesday inspectors detected elevated radiation levels as they approached a panel used to store nuclear waste.

The inspectors had to retreat before pinpointing the exact source of contamination because they had been underground for five hours in protective gear and the batteries on their respiratory equipment were running low, Reynolds said.

They are expected to make more trips into the dump next week to find out what caused the leak and the extent of the contamination. US officials said earlier that they could possibly deploy robots to inspect the area if it is unsafe for humans to continue the recovery work.

The radiation leak occurred on Feb. 14 and contaminated 21 workers, though their levels of exposure were said to be "extremely low" and well below those deemed unsafe.

The prolonged closure of the repository has forced Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in New Mexico which used to store its refuse at the plant, to relocate its radioactive waste to Texas.

The cause of the radiation leak still remains unknown. A truck fire was reported at the underground site nine days before the leak and prompted evacuations, but officials said the fire was in a different part of the site and did not seem related.

The repository stores "transuranic waste" leftover from nuclear weapons research and testing from the nation's past defense activities, according to the website of the energy department. The waste includes clothing, tools, rags and other debris contaminated with radioactive elements, largely plutonium.

Trudeau visits Sina Weibo
May gets little gasp as EU extends deadline for sufficient progress in Brexit talks
Ethiopian FM urges strengthened Ethiopia-China ties
Yemen's ex-president Saleh, relatives killed by Houthis
Most Popular
Hot Topics

...
房产| 广南县| 濮阳市| 文登市| 海林市| 玛纳斯县| 惠州市| 湘潭县| 绥芬河市| 昌平区| 泗水县| 仲巴县| 青浦区| 灵台县| 盱眙县| 松潘县| 车险| 枞阳县| 名山县| 台东市| 宿松县| 浏阳市| 施甸县| 伊金霍洛旗| 江源县| 上饶市| 临澧县| 伊宁县| 井陉县| 通河县| 兴山县| 通渭县| 彭阳县| 五大连池市| 汶川县| 犍为县| 林芝县| 赤水市| 芷江| 新营市| 托里县|