terrestrial red tide Hungary (aluminum smelter)

Humanitarian catastrophes (including resource wars and conflicts), natural, climate and industrial (except nuclear or oil forum fossil and nuclear energy). Pollution of the sea and oceans.
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terrestrial red tide Hungary (aluminum smelter)




by Christophe » 06/10/10, 14:45

Deadly and toxic sludge, Hungary calls for help

A mud tank at an aluminum plant broke on Monday, for some unknown reason, and dumped more than a million cubic meters of irritating and toxic red mud on the city of Ajka and two neighboring communities. .


The current balance sheet is 4 dead, 6 missing and 120 injured.

Seven villages are under threat and a state of emergency has been declared in this region west of Budapest. This is the worst industrial disaster that Hungary has ever known. We can also talk about an ecological disaster.

The tank ruptured and dumped its toxic contents into a small river in a huge wave two meters high. The wave overflowed the river and swept over the neighboring communes by destroying and taking everything in its path,

A hundred people were saved from the toxic flood, nearly 400 people were relocated urgently. According to a first estimate, 7000 people are affected by this disaster.

The authorities deployed 500 police and military, and six emergency teams. In addition to rescue people, they cast plaster in the Marcal River to try to stem the flow.

The hydrographic network is under heavy surveillance for fear of toxic sludge pouring into the Danube, even beyond Hungary.

Hungarian authorities suspended the activities of the aluminum plant. The management explained that the tank was not a problem during Monday's inspection and that the disaster may be due to human error.

Greeenpeace Hungary talks about a crack that was visible on the satellite images on the eve of the disaster.

In any case, it is a major disaster for Hungary, which is asking for help from the European Union. The reconstruction and cleaning of the soil will take at least a year and cost tens of millions of euros, warned the Hungarian Minister of the Environment.


Source: http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/catastrop ... rie-261867
Other sources:
http://www.romandie.com/ats/news/101006 ... japuw5.asp
http://www.france-info.com/monde-europe ... 14-15.html

In my opinion there are big risks in the medium (long) term for the quality of agricultural land and the habitability of the region ...
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by Napo dwarf » 06/10/10, 15:37

a visible crack on the satellite images

OO


Greenpeace has access to Hubble? or the satellites of the army?
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by Christophe » 06/10/10, 15:45

Ben France info says it does not come from greenpeace ...

Satellite images would indicate a visible crack on the dyke the day before the accident ...


But it is clear that using satellite images from yesterday is strange as an approach ... especially for civilians.

Nobody saw that there was a problem otherwise? : Shock: Because a crack visible by satellite ... it's not a fissure ...

Here, I think, the famous tank (open sky ...): http://maps.google.fr/maps?f=q&source=s ... 2&t=h&z=14

Image

Notice the "reddish" side of the factory ... it was already not very clean before the disaster it looks like ...
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by Christophe » 07/10/10, 14:56

The Danube begins to be affected ... and the chemical burns of the victims are impressive ...

What was the product exactly?

Are there any leads explaining the breakup? Because a madwoman doesn't give in "like that" ...
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by sherkanner » 07/10/10, 15:32

No, indeed, a dike does not "give" like that, as long as it is not used beyond its capacity (ie a level at about 70% of the max)

On the photo (cf lefigaro.fr) even once the dyke yielded, we see that the level is far too high.


For the chemical elements, there is certainly among other soda and a flop of fluoride (aluminum, lithium and calcium), not to mention the various oxides also contained in bauxite.
In short, full of joys ....

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Production
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by dirk pitt » 07/10/10, 17:20

a small precision. it is a bauxite refinery and not an aluminum plant.
the refinery processes bauxite to make alumina (aluminum oxide), which is then used in aluminum plants to make aluminum metal by electrolysis.
there is especially I think a caustic pollution because the treatment is based on soda.
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by sherkanner » 07/10/10, 17:33

I think the red color must come from the iron oxide in the bauxite.
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by Alain G » 07/10/10, 20:17

Pollution in Hungary: first dead fish in the big Danube

BUDAPEST (AFP) - The toxic flow caused by an industrial accident in Hungary has begun to affect the ecosystem of the main branch of the Danube River where several dead fish have been observed, said Thursday the regional chief of Tibor anticatastrophic services Dobson.
PROGRAMMATIC

"I can confirm that we have seen sporadic fish losses, it is true (...) in the main branch of the Danube," Dobson said.

"The dead fish have been observed where the (river) Raab flows into the Danube. They do not withstand the PH of 9,1," he said.

The toxic flow caused by red mud following an industrial accident in the west of the country reached Thursday morning the Danube, the second largest river in Europe after the Volga.

On Monday, a reservoir of a bauxite-aluminum plant in the city of Ajka (160 km west of Budapest) broke, spilling more than a million cubic meters of toxic sludge into seven surrounding villages.

The accident, whose causes remain to be elucidated, has left four dead, including a little girl 14 month, and more 150 injured according to a new official record. Three people are still missing.

"To save the ecosystem of the river, the PH level must be brought back below 8 on a scale of 14", added Mr. Dobson, recalling that shortly after this accident, unprecedented in Hungary, the level of contamination in the Torna was 13,5.

The Torna is a stream that has transported toxic mud into the Marcal River, which has succumbed to poison. Its ecosystem has been completely destroyed, and it will be necessary to wait between 3 and 5 years to see there perhaps to be reborn the life, according to the organization of nature protection WWF.

The Marcal flows into Raab, which is a direct tributary of the Danube.
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by Christophe » 08/10/10, 09:25

Alain G wrote:
"The dead fish have been observed where the (river) Raab flows into the Danube. They do not withstand the PH of 9,1," he said.


Well, I thought the mud was acidic? Rah these reporters ...

Otherwise, there may be a positive point to this disaster: this massive soil sterilization can be an interesting experiment on a large scale for scientists biodiversity ...

An interesting article, excerpt: http://www.courrierinternational.com/ar ... s-toxiques

The reasons for the ecological disaster affecting the country are not formally established, but this Hungarian editorialist is already pointing the finger at an environmental management which, under pressure from the EU, is more interested in household waste than in the environment. industrial waste.

(...)

While the region suffers an industrial disaster every ten years and we do not know how many ecological time bombs surround us, we are spending billions, under pressure from the EU, for the selective treatment of harmless household waste! Today, we are told that the number one public enemy of waste management is the plastic bottle of soda and mineral water. Let's face it, these bottles do not cause burns, destroy homes, render barren land, or devastate railway lines. Since we can not solve all the problems at once, would it be possible to privilege the essential, especially in the field of the defense of the environment?
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by chatelot16 » 08/10/10, 14:25

in France we have the same kind of factory has gardane

This is where the Bayer process was developed in 1894

in 1966 a pipe was built to send red mud to the bottom of the sea has blackcurrant

as long as we send to the sea we do not stock, it avoids the danger for the riverside ... but the rejection at sea is soon forbidden and it starts to store too

see
http://scienceamusante.net/forum/chimie ... turn=1#top

darrigan wrote:A complete file exists on the site of the Chemical Society of France (SCF, formerly SFC):

SCF website:
http://www.societechimiquedefrance.fr/

Access to folders (many materials):
http://www.societechimiquedefrance.fr/e ... es/acc.htm

Direct access to the aluminum page:
http://www.societechimiquedefrance.fr/e ... _aluminium

In this text, the chapter of alumina explains the NaOH-based process, which generates the famous red mud. Some extracts:

Bauxite is treated with a concentrated and hot NaOH solution. The attack, which lasts 2 days, takes place in autoclaves at 220 ° C and at 2 to 2,4 MPa. The aluminum is thus separated, in solution in the form of hydrated aluminate ions - (Al (OH) 4 (H2O) 2) -, solid oxides of iron and SiO2, which give "red sludge". Then Al (OH) 3 precipitates by dilution and cooling. The precipitation is initiated and controlled by a large amount of Al (OH) 3 primer from previous manufactures. The reactions involved are represented by the chemical equation below with shift of the equilibrium to the right during dissolution and to the left during precipitation after elimination of the solid phase.


and lower:

French situation: in 2006

- The production is 636 000 t of Al2O3.

- Only one plant, operated by Rio Tinto Alcan, is operating at Gardanne (13). It deals with imported bauxite with an 700 000 t / year alumina production capacity for 80% for non-metallurgical purposes, making it the world's No. 2 specialty alumina production. It was in this plant, in 1894, that the first industrial operation of the Bayer process was carried out.
The "red mud" (237 t in 700) from the factory, after washing, has been transported since 2007 by a 1966 cm diameter pipeline over 30 km and dumped 40 km off Cassis in a pit under -marine 7 m deep. Discharges at sea must end in 2. The "red sludge" begins to be recovered in the form of a solid product, Bauxaline® obtained after drying in a filter press. The production is 400 t / day. This product (consisting of approximately 2016% Fe350O50 and 2% Al3O15 with a pH of 2) is intended for public works (road embankments), construction, the rehabilitation of landfill centers, horticulture such as growing medium ...


I am amazed to read that waste is rejected at sea ... #B10 Decidedly, it is only with the mediatization of disasters that we discover the reality of the chemical industry ... while when everything goes Well, the population does not really question ...
Whether for the exploitation of oil, aluminum, or other minerals, money and profit seem to be the parameter of the equation; the respect of the environment and the populations is relegated to the last plane.
Forgive me for this offbeat parenthesis, but it makes me sick of seeing a humanity so unaccountable. #E7
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