They Thought It Was Road Kill
Halliburton lost some radioactive nuclear waste while fracking in West Texas.
That’s kinda the trifecta of “Makes You Want To Puke:”
1. Halliburton
2. Missing nuclear waste
3. Fracking
Halliburton reported it lost on September 11th. Halliburton claims they sent out special machinery to look for it until the machinery was needed for Dick Cheney’s heart. The Texas National Guard also hunted. Nada.
Well, it got found.
Thankfully, the Midland County Sheriff’s Department said that an oilfield worker spotted the radioactive rod on the ground near a highway on Friday and immediately called police. The worker recognized it thanks to fliers passed out with photos of the device.
It was only by shear luck that the worker didn’t barbeque it and call over his friends for a cookout.
Thanks to Kathleen for the heads up.
And I thought the tingly feeling you got in West Texas was from the natural beauty, now I find out it may be from radiation?
My Bad
1Well, Texas is famous for barbecue and for being against all gun control, so I guess using nukes to sear your spareribs is a good fit.
2This does not bear thinking about, what if it had been found by children? Also this is cancer causing to anyone without protective clothing.
3Projectile Puking….
4Halliburton continues to show that level of competence that made the BP Macondo well such a success.
5You have an ambigous sentence – was the National Guard sent out to look for the waste or Cheneny’s heart?
Not that I think there’s a lot of difference . . .
6In hindsight we should be thankful Haliburton didn’t spread a whole passel of them around the Gulf. They have a past history of that kind of thing you know?
They would have put it in a pot with okra, tomatoes, boudin, and roux in Louisiana. Lightning bugs wouldn’t have been the only thing glowing in the dark.
This story brings to mind leading GOP donor Harold Simmons who has been successful in building a nuclear waste dump in West Texas. Do people not realize just how much can go wrong.
7We need milk cartons with and a picture of the little lump of coal that is Cheney’s heart.
8Oops, no HTML to put in the radioactive symbol
9So are they putting radioactive material into the water table? We probably don’t need to worry about this, right?
10Wally–that particular item probably goes into a wellbore safely sealed inside a tool that doesn’t have space to open any time the bar is in the hole; it wouldn’t affect the water table.
And if you read carefully, you’ll see it was not hugely radioactive; it could cause cancer with “weeks” of exposure.
Nonetheless, it’s not the sort of thing that should be lying around outside of its lead container…
11Did they ask Homeland Security to track Pete Laney’s plane?
12Sam in Kyle, and the fact that the dump is over the Ogalalla aquifer ought to make everyone sleepless at night. Supposedly it won’t leak, but do you want to chance it? Historical context for this isn’t good.
13West Texas: Where You Don’t Have To Put Barbecue And Road Kill On A Fire To Cook It (That’s What Those Little Gray Nucular Rods You Found On The Road Are For)
14