On 21 September 2001 in Toulouse, france, 300 tons of nitrate of ammonium had exploded causing the death of 31 people and a blast heard 80 km to the round.
The two consecutive explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, recalled painful memories in France and more particularly in Toulouse. According to the lebanese Prime minister, about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored in the warehouse of the port of Beirut has exploded, causing over one hundred deaths and unprecedented damage in the lebanese capital.
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this is the same ammonium nitrate, which caused several industrial accidents, including the explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse in 2001. This chemical component is a salt white, and odorless used as the basis of many nitrogen fertilizers in the form of granules.
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The storage must follow specific rules
nitrate ammonium make up the fertilizer called ammonitrates, that farmers buy in big bags or in bulk. These are not products fuels : these are oxidizing, that is to say, they allow the combustion of another substance that is already on fire. “It is very difficult to burn it,” says Jimmie Oxley, professor of chemistry at the university of Rhode Island, who has herself worked on the combustion of ammonium nitrate. “It is not easy to be detonated”.
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The detonation is only possible with a contamination by a substance that is incompatible, or an intense source of heat. And the storage must therefore follow the rules to isolate the ammonium nitrate flammable liquids (petrol, oil…), corrosive liquids, solids flammable, or substances that emit a lot of heat, among other prohibitions, according to a fact sheet from the French ministry of Agriculture.
31 people dead in Toulouse in 2001
Of the many tragedies in the world, accidental and criminal, have as a source the ammonium nitrate. One of the first accidents did 561 died in 1921, at Oppau in Germany, in a factory BASF. In 1947, Brest was shaken by the explosion of a Norwegian vessel Ocean Liberty carrying the substance.
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In France, stacked in bulk in a warehouse of the chemical factory AZF, in the southern suburbs of Toulouse, approximately 300 tons of nitrate of ammonium has suddenly exploded and is blowing a wind of death and desolation on the fourth city of France September 21, 2001 : 31 people are dead, and the explosion was heard 80 km to the round.
Essential for farmers
in The United States, a terrible explosion at the fertilizer plant West Fertilizer in West, Texas, had 15 deaths in 2013. A stock of nitrate of ammoniums exploded due to a fire of criminal origin ; the lack of standards for storage had been questioned by investigators. The ammonium nitrate may also be used in explosive devices. The April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh had detonated a bomb made from two tonnes of manure in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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The explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse on 21 September 2001
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But the professor Oxley nuance, recalling that the ammonium nitrate has become indispensable to agriculture and construction. “We would not have this modern world without explosives, and we could not feed the current population without fertilizers of the ammonium nitrate,” she said. “We need it, but it is necessary to really pay attention to what is done with it.”
