When Kitty Litter Caused a Nuclear Catastrophe

The silliest cause for a nuclear disaster

There are enormous benefits to be had using nuclear materials in many areas of science, engineering, and medicine. But there are enormous costs as well, many of which we might not be aware of if we don’t make it a habit to read obscure government investigation reports.

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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

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This video is sponsored by Incogni.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks.
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Video by Grady Hillhouse
Edited by Wesley Crump
Produced by Ralph Crewe
Graphics by Nebula Studios

Some photos in this video were authored by an employee or employees of the Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), operator of the Los Alamos National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25396 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has rights to use, reproduce, and distribute this information. The public may copy and use this information without charge, provided that this Notice and any statement of authorship are reproduced on all copies. Neither the Government nor LANS makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any liability or responsibility for the use of this information.

[bcubed]

The aural similarity between "inorganic" and "an organic" is why military use areas in occasional use are never described as "active" or "inactive" by ATC; only "hot" or "cold."

Especially with radio reception of unknown fidelity, it's just too easy to mishear the former.

[ninjamandalorian]

Every time my cat uses it's litter tray it feels like a Nuclear Catastrophe

[AngrySugar]

So that in-person meeting should've litter-ally been an email and all this could've been avoided.

[jkzero]

I was a PhD student when this happened and I was working with people running experiments at WIPP; there was a funny meme going around with a photo of a glass-wearing kitten and exploded nuclear-waste barrels in the background with the caption "hipster kitty prefers organic litter"

[squidguy]

my dad worked for DOE in new mexico at the time, and he actually investigated the issue and helped write the press release to the public to explain what happened. he asked me to proofread it at the time to make sure the “average person” could understand it, because i was still a kid/teen

[kenbrown]

you would think the number of times it specified zeolite clay; would have tipped off the supervisors that there was a problem with the document calling for an organic material.

[OneMansOdyssey]

I work as a nuclear engineer and actually visited this site right around the time of this incident - it must have been right before the incident. A fun fact: there is a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory materials compendium that lists isotopic makeup of commonly-used materials, and kitty litter is in there precisely for facilities like these.

[Wetbusseat]

"The extent of our vigilance has to match the permanence of the hazards we create." is a quote I will remember for the rest of my life cause that really does apply to everything within the anthropocene

[Michaelzehr]

National security requirements recommend diluting text in a document with acronyms in at least a 1.2 to 1.0 ratio. Failure to do this might lead to someone being able to understand it.

(Thanks for plowing through those documents so we don't have to.)

[nigeljohnson]

It is surprising that no one questioned the error in the chemistry. The mixture is not dissimilar to gunpowder. Surely any chemist would spot this, mixing a strong oxidizer with a good reducing agent.

[guilhemmarty]

I remember reading hints on how to write documentation, and one of the big points was basically replace multiple-based words (inorganic) to multiple one-based words (not organic).

[Selsato]

Instructions unclear, i have replaced my cat's kitty litter with tranuranic salts

[jbathetuba]

I was a physicist who worked on one of those underground experiments in the research area. The craziest thing, to my mind, was that this kitty litter accident was somehow entirely unrelated to a significant underground fire not even two weeks earlier. This fire shut down operations and required a harrowing evacuation for some of my friends. I assumed something related to it led to the radioactive material release. Nope. Kitty litter. Very bad February for the site.

[psgouros]

“The extent of our vigilance has to match the permanence of the hazards we create” is a great line, and applicable in so many instances.

[rushdude]

Finally, a Grady video about my line of work! I help write the procedures for radioactive waste management in New Mexico and this kitty litter story is definitely one I keep in mind. That's why we run everything by multiple SMEs and program leads. It's impressive how many safety measures are in place so even mistakes like this don't result in environmental contamination, though.

[QuestionMan]

"It's just people doing the work" is the most profound fundamental truth that ought to always pilot engineering. It should be baked in. I love this take. Well said.

[AKrn]

I thought this was going to be about the guy who threw radioactive kitty litter away and the detectors at the dump triggered a mess. His cat had a medical procedure done 👍

[Iugeer]

Science fact: All nuclear waste problems can be traced back to someone not reading the MSDS on kitty litter.

[Ice_Karma]

As a linguist, 10, 000 years is considered to be the cutoff at which any language or language family will have changed beyond any ability to recognize it.

[Bradroid]

I am a former member of the WIPP workforce and was deeply involved with the safety of operations at the site following the incident and re-opening. This was a factually accurate and compelling analysis of the event. Well done.