CARLSBAD >> A change in the type of "kitty litter" that's mixed with transuranic waste may be to blame for February's radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. 
 
 A scientist who worked at WIPP until 2010 says he believes a change from non-organic kitty litter to organic litter caused a chemical reaction inside a waste drum, releasing the radioactive isotopes. 
 
 WIPP announced Monday night that photos taken over the weekend showed evidence of melted plastic and rubber on 55-gallon drums, indicating that the production of heat likely occurred in the underground area where waste is stored, according to a news release. 
 
 Jim Conca, who worked with WIPP from 2000 to 2010, said last week he believes a chemical reaction involving the kitty litter caused a small explosion inside a waste drum. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn confirmed on Monday that he has heard Department of Energy officials discuss the possibility that kitty litter may have been to blame for the radiation leak. Flynn said it is just one of many theories the DOE is exploring and nothing is certain at this time. 
 
 WIPP Recovery Manager Jim Blankenhorn said during last week's town hall meeting that officials believe the radiation leak was likely caused by nuclear waste that contained nitrate salt which gave off some sort of chemical reaction. Blankenhorn said a switch from a non-organic substance to organic was what triggered the event. According to Conca, the unidentified substance containing elements mirroring nitrate salt is kitty litter. 
 
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 Under WIPP's congressional mandate, the nuclear waste disposal facility located 26 miles east of Carlsbad cannot accept any liquid waste, and therefore kitty litter is used as a preventative measure to absorb any remnants of liquid before the drums are sealed and shipped to Southeastern New Mexico, Conca said. 
 
 "I'm just dying to know why this happened and who approved it, because it was a dumb idea," Conca said. "You just can't make a change to the procedure without reviewing it." 
 
 The DOE is examining three separate waste streams that contain the same chemical composition as the nitrate salt that was switched by Los Alamos National Laboratory in hopes of identifying the nature of the problem. A waste stream is any waste that came from the same place or created from the same process. Blankenhorn said last week the DOE is analyzing two waste streams from LANL and one from an unidentified source. 
 
 "I'd rather not say the other one at this point and cause a lot of flurry," Blankenhorn said on Thursday. "It's not that it's a big secret, but from a management perspective, I don't want to cause a lot of angst." Until the shutdown, WIPP was accepting waste from Los Alamos, Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River in South Carolina. 
 
 Conca says if his theory is correct, the blame would be deflected from the management teams at WIPP. 
 
 "It wasn't a safety fault of WIPP," Conca said. "I just hope it doesn't take years to get back on track because it would be a shame. It is wrong to erase 15 years of a perfect record. Look at the chemical industry or the oil industry: People die from explosions and no one calls to shut down the oil industry." 
 
 Reporter Zack Ponce can be reached at (575) 689-7402. ||||| America 
 
 Radioactive Leak At U.S. Waste Dump Was Preventable, Report Says 
 
 i itoggle caption Anonymous/AP Anonymous/AP 
 
 A February accident at a nuclear waste dump that resulted in the contamination of 21 workers resulted in part from "poor management, ineffective maintenance and a lack of proper training and oversight," a Department of Energy report concludes. 
 
 NPR's Geoff Brumfiel says the report, released Thursday, says the release of radioactive material into the environment from the Feb. 14 accident at the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., could have been prevented. The facility is a repository for defense-related nuclear waste. 
 
 The 300-page report cites a degraded safety culture, lack of training and poor maintenance for the radioactive release. 
 
 The Wall Street Journal reports: 
 
 "The accident occurred in one of the facility's waste-storage vaults, which are more than 2,000 feet underground. But some radioactive contamination was able to reach the above-ground environment and contaminate 21 workers at the site. The exposures aren't expected to cause health problems, Energy Department officials said." 
 
 An emergency filtration system designed to keep contamination below ground was not able to contain it all and some radioactivity escaped to the surface, Brumfiel says. 
 
 "Much of the blame falls on the contractor that runs the site, Nuclear Waste Partnership. But the report also blames the Energy Department itself for failing to adequately oversee the facility," he reports. 
 
 DOE Accident Investigation Board Chairman Ted Wyka identified numerous problems with the handling of the situation, which he said resulted from "degradation of key safety management and safety culture." 
 
 Among other things, it took hours for managers to implement emergency procedures, he said. 
 
 "The bottom line is they failed to believe initial indications of the release," Wyka said, according to the AP. 
 
 The Journal says:
– A scientist who used to work at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, thinks he knows what caused the mysterious radiation leak that has shuttered the plant: kitty litter. Authorities revealed Monday that the evidence indicated that nuclear waste barrels had melted thanks to a chemical reaction between the waste and another substance. That other substance was kitty litter, which is used to absorb liquid in the drums, Jim Conca, who worked at the plant from 2000 to 2010, tells the Carlsbad Current-Argus. The problem, Conca says, is that the facility switched from non-organic litter to organic litter. "I'm just dying to know why this happened and who approved it, because it was a dumb idea," he says. "You just can't make a change to the procedure without reviewing it." A New Mexico official confirms that the Energy Department is discussing the litter theory, among other possibilities. The February 14 leak exposed 21 workers to radiation. Last month, an Energy Department report ruled that it was preventable, attributing it to "poor management, ineffective maintenance, and a lack of proper training and oversight," according to NPR.