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The article mentions the plant manufactures organic peroxides. I'm not sure how it would compare but, for example, the PEPCON disaster[1] (which involved ammoni
by lazulicurio 9y ago
The article mentions the plant manufactures organic peroxides. I'm not sure how it would compare but, for example, the PEPCON disaster[1] (which involved ammonium perchlorate) caused severe damage within a 1.5 mile radius, with damage extending all the way out to 10 miles.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster#Damage_assessment_and_aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster#Damage_assessm...
- jandrewrogers 9y agoAmmonium perchlorate is a different beast. Organic peroxides are unstable as hell but as explosives their thermodynamics kind of suck. Their chemical reactivity also makes them difficult to store. TATP is popular with terrorists because it is easy to synthesize but sad material otherwise to an explosives engineer. Ammonium perchlorate, on the other hand, is right up near the top when it comes to explosive inorganic oxidizers, well-balanced and tons of potential energy. There are stronger inorganics (like hydrazine nitrate) but you never see that in industrial chemistry. The only organic peroxide I can think of that was ever a legitimate high-power explosive was HMTD, used as a primary in strong detonators, and its chemistry was a bit like swapping peroxide for the nitro in RDX (the explosive used in C4 plastic explosives).