BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Los Alamos National Laboratory has treated several small amounts of unstable chemicals by contained vessel detonation as authorized by the New Mexico Environment Division.
A LANL spokesman said Tuesday that as part of a focused to remove unused and unspent chemicals from the Laboratory’s inventory, a dedicated team found a small amount of unstable material at a TA-85 laboratory and determined that the safest way to disposition this waste was by contained destruction.
“There was no threat to public health and safety and the material was safely dispositioned in accordance with approved environmental regulations and permits,” the spokesman said.”
The waste covered by the NMED authorization consisted of 100 ml or less than half a cup each of:
- Phenylmagnesium bromide Solution
- Lithium Aluminum Deuteride
- Lithium tri-tert-butoxy-aluminum hydride
- Lithium aluminum hydride (tetryhydrofuran)
- Methylmagnesium Iodide Solution
- Sodium Borohydride Solution
- Lithium 9-BBN Hydride Solution
- Lithium Aluminum Hydride Solution
- Methylmagnesium Iodide Solution
During a May 2 walk down, a 100 mL bottle of lithium borohydride in a tetrahydrofuran solution was identified and disposed of in a similar manner with NMED approval.