US Steel explosion kills 2

The United States Steel Corp. business unit of Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC) reports that two of its employees were killed last week after an explosion Aug. 11 in the coke oven section of its blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) complex in Clairton, Pennsylvania.

“We are fully cooperating with all investigations into the incident, and we are committed to understanding exactly what happened so that nothing like it ever happens again, but right now, our focus is—and will remain—on our employees and the broader Clairton community,” U.S. Steel President and CEO David B. Burritt says.

Last Friday, U.S. Steel issued a statement saying its employees, along with other agencies, the United Steelworkers (USW) and third-party experts, have been investigating, reviewing video footage and interviewing employees.

“Preliminary indications lead us to believe that the explosion happened when flushing a gas valve, in preparation for planned maintenance," U.S. Steel says. "Pressure built inside the valve, leading to valve failure and coke oven gas filling the area and ultimately exploding when finding an ignition source. We want to reinforce that this investigation is in its early stages, and we will provide more information when we can.”

The U.S. Steel Mon Valley campus in Clairton and adjacent West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, have been steel production centers for more than 100 years. The BOF campus is one of two identified by NSC when it purchased U.S. Steel as being the subject of promised investments so operations would continue after the acquisition.

The incident, along with a $1.3 billion financial loss for NSC in its most recently completed quarter, has caused some steel industry analysts to question whether that commitment is in the long-term best interests of NSC.

Presented with that question in a postexplosion news conference, Burritt said there was no wavering in the commitment.

“We’re investing money here, and we wouldn’t have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren’t absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley,” the Associated Press quotes Burritt as saying the day after the explosion. “You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time.”

While hot steel production has caused safety and air pollution concerns in Pennsylvania, according to the AP report, much of the promised NSC investment is focused on downstream steel finishing equipment rather than melt shop modernization or now necessary repairs.