The facility where the incident occurred is located in an industrial
area in the southern part of the city. The complex consists of several one
story brick industrial buildings on a crowded site. The particular building
where the incident occurred is toward the back of the complex. The site
plan and building plan appear on the following pages. Several “high tech’
companies have their manufacturing and processing facilities in the
immediate area.
The incident occurred at a plant operated by H. C. Starck, Inc., a
multinational company that produces a wide range of products. The
facility in Newton produces items manufactured from tantalum, a rare
metal that is used for components that require exceptionally high strength
and temperature resistance. The tantalum parts are used in assemblies
such as jet engines and nuclear reactors.
Tantalum is shipped to the H. C. Starck facility as a salt, tantalum
chloride, which must be converted to an extremely high grade metallic state
before it can be molded and machined into finished products. Sodium isused in the process as a reducing agent; the tantalum is converted from the
salt compound to a pure metal and the metallic sodium is converted to a
non-hazardous salt compound (sodium chloride). The reaction takes place
in a closed system and all of the by-products are retained for other
industrial uses.
The facility is reported to have an exceptionally good relationship
with the Newton Fire Department. The plant has a full-time safety
specialist, who maintains a close liaison with the Newton Fire Department,
and the company is involved with the Local Emergency Planning
Committee for hazardous materials incidents. All of the Newton Fire
Department companies that respond to the plant had been given
familiarization tours and were provided with information on the hazards of
materials used at the plant, including extinguishing procedures for minor
sodium fires. Employees are also trained to handle minor sodium fires.
There had been some incidents involving sodium at the facility in
the past. The Newton Fire Department had responded to some of these
incidents, which were handled with no unusual problems. Large containers
of sodium chloride are located in areas where sodium is handled for use as
an extinguishing agent.
Next » Sodium
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