AMMONIUM NITRATE DOUBLETHINK
A good breakdown from an explosive expert/chemist and they tease a future demo they're going to do with AN:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPf3P-1PEBw
Struck me as about 80% blather. Hi, Mom.
Their chart at ~5:03:
Melts 337°F
Boils 410°F
Paraquote: "At which point it will explosively decompose."
Paraquote:
"AN is not an explosive, but under the right conditions it will detonate."
I guess for DOT purposes, technically it is a "Strong Oxidizer" or something like that.
But I think large quantities of this "strong oxidizer" ought to be kept in magazines, like firearms propellants in large quantities.
You know, even single based propellant powders, like IMR 4350, can detonate if pushed hard enough... "pushed" meaning like the transfer of energy from a .30-'06 to a barrel full of it. (See Hatcher's Notebook.) And let's remember that
temperature (e.g. 410°F) is actually a measure of the velocities of atoms or moleculres or a 150 grain bullet.
I think the flashes were not individual units of AN going off, but rather,
since they occurred while apparently airborne, fireworks from the fireworks outfit. Thus I can easily imagine an aerial salute getting into the AN storehouse and detonating the whole mess, as I speculated earlier in this thread. (
http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=62659.msg1265685#msg1265685)
I respect their professional expertise, but I thnk they missed a couple of points and
seemed to want to echo the Ag and Transportation industries' apparent position that Ammonium Nitrate is safe.
Well, maybe a couple hundred pounds of it, but not 2500 tons. As evidenced multiple times by documented history.
The risk management analyisis seems to need adjusting. "Aw, hell, it only destroys a city only every decade or so, so why bother changing the regulations?"
I really have to laugh tragically at this whole notion that it's not an explosive, since it only goes off under the right conditions.
Talk about doublethink.
:(
Terry, 230RN