In some ways, ammonium nitrate is the perfect explosive. The more … The idea that such a quantity would have been left unattended for six years beggars belief and was an accident waiting to happen.". Emergency wards have been inundated. The Moldovan-flagged ship stopped in Greece to refuel. Pentaerythritol tetranitrate contains 29 atoms; 16 of them are nitrogen or oxygen. The ammonium nitrate explosion results from a fire that spreads into the ammonium nitrate (Texas City, TX; Brest; West, TX; Tianjin; Beirut), or from ammonium nitrate mixing with a combustible material during the fire (Repauno, Cherokee, Nadadores). So, without going into thermodynamics (neither of us wants this) the take-home message here is that when a lot of gas is released quickly from a molecule packed with it bad things happen. When combined with fuel oils, ammonium nitrate creates a potent explosive widely used by the construction industry, but also by insurgent groups like the Taliban for … It contains no carbon - only nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. Despite being a major component of many explosives, ammonium nitrate does not act as an explosive by itself. A woman looks out of the collapsed facade of a Beirut apartment on Wednesday. Once a reaction is sparked (by some other means) the ammonium nitrate quickly decomposes into… Now Explosive Organic Peroxides. It's a white solid made up entirely of gases. A component of fertilizer, ammonium nitrate is potentially explosive. 'Misplaced Blame for Opioid Epidemic Harms Pain Patients' - Drs. It is also a key component of ANFO, (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil), an industrial explosive used in mining, quarrying, and civil construction and accounting for 80% of all the industrial explosives used in US. But not always. It is like an apocalypse.". "At the time, on board of the dry cargo ship there were particularly dangerous goods -- ammonium nitrate, which the port authorities of Beirut did not allow to unload or transfer to another ship," it added. It was then kept in that hangar for six years, despite repeated warnings from the Director of Lebanese Customs, Badri Daher, of the "extreme danger" that the cargo posed. Solution for Ammonium nitrate is an explosive and a fertilizer. An explosion occurred in a warehouse storing some 300 metric tons of ammonium nitrate in the southern French city of Toulouse. Ether (diethyl ether) is one of the most common organic solvents used in labs. "The Port Authority should not have allowed the ship to offload the chemicals into the port," he said. In 2013, the MV Rhosus set off from Batumi, Georgia, destined for Mozambique, according to the vessel's path and the account of its captain Boris Prokoshev. In its pure form, ammonium nitrate isn’t usually explosive – in fact, it’s safe to handle. This aerial photo, taken Wednesday, shows the aftermath of the explosion. Images … With that, here's the answer to the question people around the world – and especially in Lebanon – are asking themselves: Why does it explode? How Toxic Terrorists Scare You With Science Terms, Adult Immunization: The Need for Enhanced Utilization, IARC Diesel Exhaust & Lung Cancer: An Analysis. Can a Vile Smelling Chemical Make Vaccines Work Better in the Elderly? Contributions are fully tax-deductible. A person hugs French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to the Gemmayzeh neighborhood in Beirut on Thursday. Don't Panic, Everything Goes to Pot: Myths Are Driving FDA, CDC Vaping Policy, What the Hulk? Previous disasters linked to the chemical have led to improved regulations for its safe storage, Associate Professor Stewart Walker, from the school of Forensic, Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, told CNN said; such rules mean it tends to be kept away from population centers. That's an awful lot of gas trapped in one molecule, which is why it goes boom when enough energy (heat, shock, or electricity) is supplied to get it started. Lebanese soldiers search for survivors on Wednesday. When they are opened (either manually or automatically by exposure to water the vests inflate rapidly. People gather by damaged buildings after the blast. The American Council on Science and Health is a research and education organization operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This satellite image, obtained by CNN from Planet Labs Inc., shows a massive crater at the site of Tuesday's explosion. At points, he even offered to sell the dangerous cargo to the Lebanese army, according to the court documents, but to no avail. A building's facade is shattered after Tuesday's explosion. A man whose legs were injured because of the explosion looks at a destroyed house on Friday. A gigantic amount of ammonium nitrate recently exploded in Beirut, killing hundreds, injuring thousands while causing catastrophic damage. Perhaps the closest comparison to Beirut's explosion, in terms of scale, is a blast in Texas City in 1947, which was caused by 2,300 US tons (about 2,087 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate. “Ammonium nitrate is the ammonium salt of nitric acid . NH4NO3 (s) -------> N2 (g) + 2H2O (g) + 1/2 O2 (g). You should see a pattern. In March 2010 the Afghan government banned ammonium nitrate fertilizer so the insurgents have begun to smuggle it into the country. She told Jordan's state-owned channel Al Mamlaka that the exchange is being considered in relation to the potential cause of the deadly Beirut blast. 4 Food Items That Sound Healthy, But Really Aren't. A mixture of 94% porous pellets of ammonium nitrate acts as an oxidizing agent when added to fuel oil (6% of the total volume) and can be used to create a basic but deadly explosive. The resulting fire caused an explosion and additional fires that damaged more than 1,000 buildings and killed nearly 400 people, according to the website of the Texas Historical Association. Eventually we had to sell the fuel and use the money to hire a lawyer because there was not help, the owner did not even provide us with food or water," Prokoshev said in a radio interview with Echo Moscow on Wednesday. Rubble at the explosion very dangerous carbon atoms ( C ) and 3 (... Tuesday night ruined structures at the scene of the most common organic used! 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