A mill kept running after a “not fit” warning. Now procurement will spread the risk.
Can you actually shut down equipment after a serious warning? Paper and packaging buyers are moving past price—toward proof of stoppage.
At a mill in Longview, Washington, a white-liquor tank failed and 11 people died. About 10 months before the accident, an external inspection flagged the tank as effectively “not fit” for continued service. Even so, repairs and an internal inspection were not carried out, according to an updated notice from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB).
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Translated from Japanese by AI. The Japanese original is authoritative.
On the day the white-liquor tank collapsed, the mill thought it had “stopped”—but it hadn’t stopped all the way.
On May 26, 2026, at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company (NDP)’s Longview mill, the G tank holding white liquor (a highly caustic alkaline solution used in the kraft pulping process) suffered a catastrophic failure. CSB’s incident summary lists 11 fatalities. The same CSB update also notes three people with serious injuries.…
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