Science

This would have mitigated the danger, by making the release very slow.

The standard way to remediate small HF spills is to treat them with a calcium salt or better yet, calcium hydroxide. On skin, where it is very dangerous, since one will not know about the contamination until it is "too late" - a hole appears in the flesh - calcium gluconate is often used.

I doubt though that there was enough calcium hydroxide in all of Los Angeles County to neutralize the HF in that tank.

In the old days, I concede, some high school chemistry teachers used to do relatively dangerous things. To be perfectly honest, my interest in chemistry derives from my high school teacher tossing a piece of sodium metal in a glass beaker and blowing it to pieces.

I should state, to be perfectly honest, that I favor HF/salt eutectics as a means of reprocessing nuclear fuels. It would be, however, a very different ballgame.