Depiction of how a booster tube was oriented on pin bars. Illustration: Chemical Safety Board
Washington — Explosives that are considered “relatively insensitive” to friction, heat or impact can still ignite under these and other energy sources, the Chemical Safety Board warns.
That message is part of an update on CSB’s investigation into a fatal October incident at the Accurate Energetic Systems LLC explosives manufacturing facility in McEwen, TN.
Multiple catastrophic explosions occurred during the production of commercial explosives called cast boosters, which are designed to trigger larger detonations in industrial building applications. Sixteen workers were killed and seven others were injured in what CSB Chair Steve Owens, in a press release, calls “one of the deadliest industrial incidents in our country in years.”
Investigators reported that around 23,000 pounds of explosives were detonated, deflagrated or burned in the facility, which housed large quantities of explosives apart from those being processed. Workers “manually packed” the cast boosters into boxes and readied them for shipment, they found. The products were considered secondary explosives intended to require a “primary explosive” to cause an explosion.
“The pressure wave from the initial detonation likely caused other explosives in the building to sympathetically detonate,” the investigation update states.
The investigation is ongoing, the agency says, adding that “complete findings, analyses and recommendations, if appropriate, will be detailed in the CSB’s final investigation report.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication