In the past, kitty litter was made from all sorts of things, sand, sawdust, even ashes, but these days most kitty litter is made up of a super-absorbent clay that is designed to prevent your little ball of fur tracking it all through the house. As it turns out, this super-absorbent clay is also super-duper at absorbing nuclear waste as well as kitty pee. By mixing clay cat litter into the leftover radioactive waste that comes from producing nuclear power, it stabilizes and makes it much less likely to react with the environment is that nasty wildlife-with-three-eyes kinda way. You've gotta be careful about which brand you choose, however, or things can go a bit wrong. Back in 2014, America's only nuclear waste facility in New Mexico reported that one of its storage tanks had burst open, sending forth a wave of radioactive sludge, and it was the kitty litter than was to blame. It looks like somebody in charge of purchasing the litter had a fit of environmentalism and decided to switch to the organic version. Sounds nice, but unfortunately, organic cat litter contains, well, organic material such as plant fibres. This is full of chemical compounds that react with the nuclear waste, causing it to slowly heat up. Now, the only thing worse than nuclear waste is hot nuclear waste. Eventually, the pressure built up and caused the whole thing to explode, turning an attempt at environmentalism into an environmental disaster.
