Federal board to investigate deadly explosion
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board says it is sending a team to northern Illinois to investigate an explosion of a high pressure vessel at a technology plant that left one man dead.
Board spokeswoman Amy McCormick said Tuesday that the team should arrive in Belvidere on Wednesday at the plant of NDK America Inc.
On Monday, the explosion sent debris aloft that killed an Indiana truck driver at a nearby highway rest area. Boone County Coroner Rebecca Wigget identified him as 63-year-old Ronald Greenfield of Chesterton, Ind.
The plant employs about 30 people and makes synthetic crystals for computers.
NDK had moved to a new 55,000-square-foot factory in Belvidere in September 2003 and employs about 30 people, according to Growth Dimensions, the economic development agency for the city of Belvidere and Boone County.
The building housed four 75-ton "autoclaves" - each 50 feet tall and 3½ feet in diameter - in which the crystals were grown.
According to a news release from the board, it doesn't issue citations or fines but does make safety recommendations.
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