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Anhydrous Ammonia - NIMBY

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BigInch

BigInch

Petroleum
Jun 21, 2006
15,161
Hard to understand why this was built within 1/4 mile of all these places. If it happened during the day you could probably add at least 200 dead kids to the total. I hope all the million or so small towns all over the US that have these ammonia transfer plants, or other dangerous chemicals) in the middle of their towns get serious about safety starting ...NOW. Shut them down immediately until they move farther out of town. Lesson: Even little towns need strict zoning laws.

Heart felt sentiments to all those affected. ANOTHER AVOIDABLE TRADEGY.

westplan.PNG



Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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Should be. Ammonia explosion, if even possible, should have obliterated their storage tanks to the point that there should have been nothing left of them anywhere near where the tanks were. Yet, the overhead image shows crushed remains where all four tanks used to be.

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

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I noticed one article that said the railroad car had ammonium nitrate in it. They deduced it wasn't the cause of the explosion as it wasn't blown to smithereens. Makes me curious how they were handling the stuff, though, was this just a big pile of it on the floor, were there bins inside, was it in bags, or what?
 
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According to Wikipedia, AN needs to be stored in "tightly sealed containers" to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air.

TTFN
faq731-376
7ofakss

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Well, the fact that their plant was blown to smithereenies might tend to imply that they weren't following proper storage procedures...
 
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Just saying that if they were on a railcar, they probably would have been in containers.

TTFN
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7ofakss

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Yes. I'll bet on nitrate.

Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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Yep, AN did it.

Good luck,
Latexman

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Why don't they stand in the low point of the crater and ask all the employees, one-by-one, what was sitting here just prior to the explosion?

Good luck,
Latexman

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"Looks like the rail car and the ammonia tanks did not explode !"

Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that there's a 90-ft crater located NOT where all those things were?

TTFN
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7ofakss

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A couple of generations ago I read a discussion of an AN explosion. That article claimed that smaller amounts of AN will burn without exploding. The heat of combustion is removed by clouds of smoke. When a large quantity of AN burns, the smoke can not leave quickly enough. The temperature and pressure rise until the detonation point is reached and the balance of the AN explodes.
The article stated that truck loads and rail car loads were in little danger of detonation.
Ship loads and large warehouses full of AN were in danger of explosion in the event of a fire.


Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
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Like most oxidation reactions, there are surface-to-volume, pressure, and temperature effects. Like the oily rag bursting into flames thing.

Good luck,
Latexman

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Pepcon Explosion, rocket solid fuel manufacturer, Henderson NV ~1980s
Documentary in HD - Discovery Explosions Gone Wrong.

Same basic scenario, same basic chemistries, far-more isolated plant, massive explosion... not rocket science to learn from previous incidents.



Regards, Wil Taylor

Trust - But Verify!

We believe to be true what we prefer to be true.

For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible.
 
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"Pepcon Explosion, rocket solid fuel manufacturer..."
"...not rocket science..."

One could argue that in this example it actually is 'rocket science'. :)
 
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Actually I think PepCon made a base part of the solid rocket fuel [precurser]... formulation was completed [compounded/molded/case-filled] by the SRB manufacturers.

Regards, Wil Taylor

Trust - But Verify!

We believe to be true what we prefer to be true.

For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible.
 
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The company was insured for 1,000,000 dollers. That will be a great help to those who's lives were destroyed. @^#%^*&@*^#)%&* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only good thing about all this is that THIS company won't ever be coming back.

Independent events are seldomly independent.
 
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Odd thing.
Seeing as how the explosion happened after a large fire, it would seem doubtful that bombmaking had anything to do with it, arson would be more likely there.

Also curious what the guy had. Anyone that does handloading of cartridges or that shoots muzzleloading guns has a good supply of "bomb making materials".
 
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