A serious accident at a pulp mill in Longview, Washington, has shocked the industrial sector. The rupture of a tank containing more than 3.4 million liters of white liquor, a highly corrosive substance, caused at least one death, left nine injured, and nine other workers missing. Ten people, including a firefighter, were taken to hospitals as rescue teams face serious safety risks.
Technical lessons from a foretold structural failure 💀
White liquor, composed mainly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide, is essential in the Kraft process for paper pulp manufacturing. Its high corrosiveness requires tanks with specific linings and rigorous thickness control. This accident underscores the need for stricter inspection protocols, early leak detection systems, and redundant relief valves. Asset integrity management in chemical plants is not a luxury but a condition to avoid catastrophes of this lethal magnitude.
White liquor: not for drinking, but also not for breathing 🧪
While technicians discuss alloys and thicknesses, the missing workers are probably not hiding to avoid paying their round. With over three million liters of a cocktail that dissolves almost everything, the priority now is to find the nine colleagues without needing a metal detector. Of course, if anyone was wondering why unions demand more safety meetings, here is the answer in the form of a toxic puddle.