A month after an industrial fire erupted at a closed low-level radioactive waste dump 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas, officials are still uncertain what caused the blaze.
The Nye County government in a press release Tuesday described the fire as an “eye opening event” that would require years to fully understand. It burned from Oct. 18-19 in Beatty, Nev., at a permanently shuttered waste site managed by US Ecology.
The fire was reported at about 1 p.m. Oct. 18 in one of the site’s low-level radioactive waste disposal trenches, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, and officials allowed it to burn itself out, which took about 12 hours. Authorities announced the next day that there were no known health risks to area residents and reopened a 140-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 95, which had been closed while crews tested the air and ground for radioactive contamination.
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services is working with US Ecology, Nye County officials, and the office of Gov. Brian Sandoval in investigating the cause of fire. On Oct. 21, officials conducted an initial investigation, taking photographs, measurements, and radiation readings in and around the trench. There were no abnormal readings, according to the release. Investigators conducted a second visit on Nov. 4-5, collecting samples from the 55-gallon drums that were expelled from the trench by the fire. The containers were returned to the crater, which is now topped with a tarp pending being filled and sealed again. Officials are now preparing a comprehensive assessment of the entire site.
In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency fined US Ecology $500,000 for numerous waste violations at the Nye County site, according to an agency press release. Federal inspectors determined a hazardous waste unit, which was designed to thermally treat contaminated material, was smoking and releasing “hazardous components into the air.” Sampling results found PCBs at elevated levels, both inside and outside of the PCB storage building, with respective readings of 43,500 parts per million and 900 ppm.
