Honeywell, Union Differ on Chemical Leak at Metropolis Plant

WKMS | By Todd Hatton

Published May 31, 2012 at 9:23 AM CDT

United Steel workers Local 7669 officials say there was a seven minute uranium hexafluoride leak at Honeywell’s Metropolis, Illinois plant earlier this month. They also allege the community was not notified of the incident.

Union spokesman John Paul Smith says on May 14^th, a Honeywell engineer caused a release of the toxic material while attempting to do a laid-off employee’s work. Honeywell spokesman Peter Dalpe says that’s not what happened. He says a worker was clearing a storage vessel when a valve broke releasing less than a quarter pound of the material. Dalpe says the entire incident lasted less than 2 minutes, and resulted in no exposure or impact offsite. The Paducah Sun reports the company immediately notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is investigating the incident.

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Todd Hatton

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.

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