Burning waste dump problem

The owners of a waste dump on fire since 2010 near the American city of St Louis in Missouri have been given 30 days to present new plans for a system to cool the area.

Environmentalists fear the underground fire could spread to a nearby West Lake where nuclear debris is buried.

Officials say that inside the burning site a chemical reaction takes place at very high temperatures consuming the waste below the surface of the earth.

Some of the measures that will be taken to try to smother the fire are placing monitors of temperature control, enhancing a plastic cover already place to contain the smell and blocking access of oxygen.

However the local Environmental Protection Agency said that if the fire reaches the deposit of radioactive material in West Lake, it would not represent any danger for the population in the area.

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