Yesterday the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) added the “United
States Steel Coporation Clairton Plant Coke Oven Explosion” to the list of
active investigations on their ‘Current
Investigations Page’. The Board announced
that they were initiating the investigation on August 12th.
Apparently, the investigation team has turned up sufficient information of
interest to the Board to make a full-blown investigation worthwhile.
The fatal explosions and fires at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works plant in Clairton, PA, occurred on August 11th . News reports (here, here, and here) describe the incident. Two people have been confirmed dead and a number have been admitted to local hospitals. There is no current information available about the cause of the initial explosion, but it reportedly occurred in a coke battery which is used to convert coal into coke used in steel production. The process emits coke gas, a flammable and toxic mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
I would expect the Board to publish an initial report on the
circumstances involved in the incident in the next week or so.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment