As an outsider that knows nothing, it sounds crazy to me that anything this toxic could be contained in a system that fails to a level of two options: uncontrollable leak or explosion.
Is this the norm or is this a larger safety design failure?
I feel like nuclear programs plan better than this so I expect more of anyone storing a chemical like methyl methacrylate that has a similar thermal runaway risk.
In a normal society, I would expect whoever is storing this is held accountable so that other companies storing it take the proper measures to prevent something like this from happening in the future. Unfortunately we don’t live in that society :(
Well I just went down a rabbit hole. And this stuff doesn’t seem that bad. It’s stable at room temperature and there aren’t a ton of things that would set it off short of chucking something in to set it off. Heat, sunlight, and sparks are the main things that initiate polymerization. So California doesn’t seem the best option there.
Honestly don’t know why they are calling it highly toxic. I mean it’s not great but I wouldn’t go that far
As much as I would like that to be a Simpsons joke about Springfield factory, it’s not funny.
Chemical disasters are really bad. I’ve been through that two times.
Hope nobody get hurt or worse.
As an outsider that knows nothing, it sounds crazy to me that anything this toxic could be contained in a system that fails to a level of two options: uncontrollable leak or explosion.
Is this the norm or is this a larger safety design failure?
Those are always the 2 options when dealing with the catastrophic failure of the containment system of volatile material.
I feel like nuclear programs plan better than this so I expect more of anyone storing a chemical like methyl methacrylate that has a similar thermal runaway risk.
In a normal society, I would expect whoever is storing this is held accountable so that other companies storing it take the proper measures to prevent something like this from happening in the future. Unfortunately we don’t live in that society :(
Well I just went down a rabbit hole. And this stuff doesn’t seem that bad. It’s stable at room temperature and there aren’t a ton of things that would set it off short of chucking something in to set it off. Heat, sunlight, and sparks are the main things that initiate polymerization. So California doesn’t seem the best option there.
Honestly don’t know why they are calling it highly toxic. I mean it’s not great but I wouldn’t go that far
Yeah I just saw a press conference where they said best case scenario is that it ruptures and leaks out.
That begs the question as to why there aren’t multiple ways to release tank pressure.