Known for being the deadliest of hazard for the Neshaten to deal with. Crystallization is an inherent risk when using Lunebaren Crystals in a reactor, although very rare, crystallization can occur if the conditions are just right.
Crystallization is when a power crystal goes into a sudden meltdown, it's not known what can cause this meltdown just that what happens afterwards is what makes crystallization deadly. When Crystallization first occurs, cracks start to form on the crystal, which also releases heavy doses of radiation into the surrounding areas.
As the process of meltdown continues, lesser short lived forms of the hyper-dimensional anomalies that created the crystals appears and begins to suck in the ambient heat and light, which results in the temperature of surrounding area's to drop to absolute zero, crystallizing everything, including people.
The crystallizing of people can results in their instantaneous death because while encased, their bodies succumb to severe frostbite brought upon by the zero-degree temperature. The radius at which crystallization occurs depends on the size of the crystal that melted-down, a crystal that operates only within a small device like a flashlight will only effect an area roughly a foot in diameter. On the other hand, a starship reactor that has this happen might end up losing the entire area around its engineering bay and several areas beyond it. In a power plant or station, which have the largest of reactors, the effects can be far more devastating and the crystallizing field can spread for hundreds of kilometers.
There is a limited form of protection against Crystallization, and that is to wear a Type D Hazard Operations Suit which helps to insulate the individual, but this only provides ten minutes of protection before the suits systems will fail and the wearer will die from the cold.
It is impossible for an area to be cleaned up when this phenomenon occurs, and there are very few signs of it occurring. Although it is speculated that if a reactor is brought above its specifications, a meltdown can occur, but there is no evidence to support this. What is known is that if an Engineer suspects it to be happening, they are to either jettison the ships reactor or to flee the room.
When Crystallization occurs, cleanup is what happens afterwards, a process that can take many seasons. Clean up involves the complete destruction of all effected equipment, it is impossible to recover and must be incinerated. Unfortunately, there is no known way to destroy the crystals once they have formed, as they are typically harder than those that are mined.