Analysis of the alleged Kyshtym disaster Page: 22 of 29
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At this point the Soviets could have been more vulnerable to
causing widespread aerosol contamination than at any other point
in their previous history of sloppy practices at Kyshtym.
There are two possible mechanisms for dispersal of these
highly contaminated clay particles—one natural, both uncontrol-
lable .
A study of local weather trends in the Kyshtym area has led
to some interesting observations—one of which indicates that
during late February and early March there are sudden gusts of
wind (up to 100 km per hour) that last about 2 hours, subside, and
then start up again.
If the time lag between the drainage of the pond and the
coverage of the clay bottom with soil/sand occurred during the
erratic spring windy season, aerosol contamination could be depos-
ited in widespread, noncontiguous regions around Kyshtym by a
natural dispersal mechanism, wind.
An explosive dispersal mechanism for the contaminated clay
particles may also have been possible, predicated on the Soviet
receipt of an unintentional piece of information from Hanford.
This possibility is investigated in the following paragraphs.
Although the effectiveness of the coprecipitation process for
separation of plutonium had been successfully exploited to produce
enough plutonium for an atomic weapon, Hanford continued to con-
duct research and development in alternative separation schemes.
One such scheme, the Redox method, utilized ammonium nitrate and
hexone. Hanford never used ammonium nitrate but, at one time,
large quantities of ammonium nitrate had been purchased, marked as
such, and stored outside in large piles on the Hanford Reserva-
tion. If the Soviets acquired this piece of information, they may
have used a Redox-type process involving both ammonium nitrate and
hexone. The radioactive waste pond would then also have contained
both ammonium nitrate and hexone.
Using the earlier scenario of open-pond waste storage, the
waste pond storage problem would have been compounded by the pres-
ence of ammonium nitrate and hexone, a flammable solvent. As the
liquid evaporated from the pond, the ammonium nitrate (a highly
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Soran, D.M. & Stillman, D.B. Analysis of the alleged Kyshtym disaster, report, January 1, 1982; New Mexico. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1066827/m1/22/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.