France consumes large quantities of nitrate of ammonium, primarily for agriculture in the form of nitrogen fertilizer. 108 sites classified Seveso store ammonitrates.
Importer and producer, France is fond of ammonium nitrate, a chemical substance at the origin of the explosions in Beirut, surrounded by particularly strict regulation in Europe since the tragedy of AZF in 2001.
8% of the world consumption
France consumes large quantities of nitrate of ammonium, primarily for agriculture in the form of nitrogen fertilizer, the ammonium nitrate. The rest is used to produce explosives, particularly in the mining sector and public works, with a higher concentration and thus more dangerous, according to the firm IHS.
In 2017, the France has imported 332 694 tonnes of ammonium nitrate and 823 727 tonnes of ammonium nitrate to calcium (a mixture of ammonium nitrate and calcium carbonate) just for the needs of agriculture, according to the Agency of the united Nations food and agriculture organization (FAO). It accounted for 8% of global consumption, according to the international federation of fertilizers (IFA).
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tens of millions of tonnes of mineral fertilisers are used in France for a year, according to the ministry of the ecological transition, in which 5 to 6 million of nitrogen fertilizers. Benedict Labouille, which is grown in Gironde, corn, rapeseed, and vegetables, for example, uses each year “a little more than 10 tons of” ammonium nitrate, “on nearly all crops in conventional farming”, he explains. This fertilizer is “very useful,” he says, because “directly assimilable by the plant,” which requires nitrogen to develop.
The total quantity stored in France varies greatly during the year. “The fertilizer products do not remain more than a few weeks on the industrial sites, and are consumed in the year”, explained a spokesperson for the union des industries de la fertilisation (Unifa). “It is a product that travel very little, it’s really about the tense flow as a function of agricultural needs.”
108 sites under surveillance
“The zero risk does not exist”, assure-t-on Unifa, “but in France there’s an industry that tends towards that. To my knowledge, in France, a stock of ammonium nitrate which remained six years without being controlled, monitored, traced, it does not exist.”
Nearly two decades after the accident murderer of AZF in Toulouse, explosions, Beirut, reviving yet the concerns of the associations. “The risks are multiple, warned Tuesday the president of Robin hood on RTL. “There is on the docks of Saint-Malo between 3000 and 4000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that are staying for several weeks before the trucks come to load them and distribute in the cooperative farms. And there is a risk that truck also not to be overlooked.”
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Since the late 1980s, the government has identified ten incidents in France that may have involved ammonium nitrate, more than in any other country. The most deadly is that of the AZF factory in Toulouse, which had 31 dead and 2,500 wounded in the explosion of 300 tons of ammonium nitrate.
The eu legislation has since been strengthened, in particular to the storage box by the Seveso directive 3. In france, 108 sites classified Seveso store ammonitrates. The department of ecological Transition identifies 16 warehouses Seveso high (more than 2500 tonnes for ammonitrates the most common) and 31 Seveso sites down (from 350 tonnes of ammonium nitrate).
Tests détonabilité
Islands of small size and separated distance of the heat sources, smoke detectors, cleaning and monitoring regular are also taxed. Well as clearly defined technical criteria.
For products that are highly concentrated in ammonium nitrate used as fertilizer, the european regulation requires a test of détonabilité. “But these tests being made on a few pounds, a negative trial does not mean that the product is unable to detonate a larger scale or in storage conditions are unsuitable or degraded”, shade Marie-Astrid Soenen, responsible for the management of accidental risk at the French Institute of industrial environment and risks (Ineris).
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The ammonium nitrate explodes in contact with incompatible products such as fuels, if it is exposed to a strong heat source, or the result of a violent impact with a projectile.
