4 ms·
AN is actually quite stable. It clumps when wet, and people back in the day would use dynamite to break mounds of it apart. It takes the addition of fuel to m
by ortusdux 4y ago
AN is actually quite stable. It clumps when wet, and people back in the day would use dynamite to break mounds of it apart. It takes the addition of fuel to make it slightly unstable, but even then it takes a a high explosive to trigger it. The Beruit explosion was only possible because they stored AN, car tires, and fireworks in one location. And even then, best estimates are that only 5% of the AN combusted.
- jacquesm 4y ago> And even then, best estimates are that only 5% of the AN combusted. You say that as though it is a good thing. The way I read it is that it could have been much, much worse if the conditions had been a bit different.
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoI think the parent's point is that it was stable enough that ~20x as much AN as exploded in Beruit survived being next to an enormous explosion and didn't itself go off. A convoluted argument, to be sure.
- indolering 4y agoFrom a chemist's standpoint, pointing out the level of inefficiency is straightforward: it sucks compared to X at blowing stuff up! But from a safety engineering PoV ... robots. More robots.