Chronos wrote:It was introduce here a few years back, rather than going out and having a bit of fun a heap of forum rednecks posted dozens of posts, vids and pics and it was soon brought to the attention of authorities and was summarily banned. technically it's not an explosive but that doesn't stop things that look fun and potentially dangerous being banned
Chronos
Title_II wrote:Chronos wrote:It was introduce here a few years back, rather than going out and having a bit of fun a heap of forum rednecks posted dozens of posts, vids and pics and it was soon brought to the attention of authorities and was summarily banned. technically it's not an explosive but that doesn't stop things that look fun and potentially dangerous being banned
Chronos
Under American laws, it is not an explosive when being TRANSPORTED, un mixed. The first component is ammonium nitrate, which is a high explosive, but is legally considered an oxidizer since it is difficult to detonate. the second component is mostly aluminum wtih some sensitizers. Once mixed for use, it is an explosive by any definition - essentially a form of Ammonol. That would be the explosive used in in the US MOAB and Daisy Cutter. It was also used as the main bursting charge for many bombs and weapons during WWII.
Apollo wrote:A few little points here.
Ammonium Nitrate is NOT an explosive, it is a fertiliser. Ammonium Nitrate is granulated, another version is Nitram which is the Prilled version used to make ANFO (Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil) which is a high explosive. Being prilled (little round balls) it allows an even coating / soaking of the fuel oil and hence a better end result.
Ammonium Nitrate is not banned, it is just restricted supply and can be ordered through rural outlets that have gone to the trouble of creating safe / secure storage facilities. It was restricted because it was being used to make a rough version of ANFO. Nitram can be obtained but requires an explosives permit but for those in the business it is much better to just aquire the manufactured version, ANFO and transported to where it's required.
The ship/s that are known to explode carrying Ammonium Nitrate happens through a combination of rare events that happened to combine at the wrong time. One such example was a shipment of ammonium nitrate that was contaminated by a fuel oil leak in the vessel, that then combined with a fire onboard and something else which cased a minor explosion that then caused the ammonium nitrate fuel oil mixture to explode. BTW, the Ammonium Nitrate & Fuel Oil had to be in the correct proportion to be dangerous and that in itself was one of those chances in a million that happened. Too little or too much fuel oil and it doesn't work.
ANFO by itself will not explode, you can hit it as hard as you like and or burn it as hot as you like and it will not explode. It is a rather safe product. An explosion is required to detonate ANFO like a Half Stick or more of Plastic Explosive which in itself needs a detonator to cause it to explode.
The only really dangerous part of the whole mix is the detonator, just a big Primer which is set off with either a burning fuse or electric charge. Not sure but I think you might find these days that ANFO and Detonators are not transposted together.
Title_II wrote:If you are using it for fertilizer, urea is higher in N2. Most peple that use AN want that extra N, but I don't know if it has other nice crop properties.
dpskipper wrote:Not sure about exploding stuff. I believe Tannerite is used in exploding targets. My guess is its banned. If you can't use fireworks then anything else that goes "bang" would be as well. Exblast make some exploding targets that can be sold here. You put some kind of powder in a empty water bottle, pressurize the bottle with a bike bump, and shoot it. It goes pop.
Gun-nut wrote:Though I do recall they were selling tannerite here in Oz a couple of years back, never heard of anything since.
Bren wrote:Ok so maybe I can clear a few things up.
Ammounium Nitrate holds a hazard class of oxidiser 5.1 unless mixed with a prescribed fuel.
It then becomes a blasting agent of class 1 and is treated as HE albeit with a lower explosive power. (.6 of tnt)
A few years back after security reviews directly related to the events of 9/11 a nationwide approach to ammonium nitrate was taken.
Ammonium nitrate emulsions and mixtures of greater than 45% AN were determined to be security sensitive and labelled SSAN.(there is a bunch more technical stuff involved but not needed for this post relating to Calcium Ammonium Nitrate emulsions etc).
The percentages of Fuel in AN vary depending on the application but recent events have indicated that contamination of technical grade SSAN as low as .05% increase the explosion risk during transport related events.
Given the Self accelerating decomposition temperature of AN is around 350C its easy to see how transport accidents can happen.
Previous comments have indicated that SSAN cannot explode on its own are technically correct but that assumes technical grade and uncontaminated by any fuel source.(yeah right..coal dust, grass ,wheat grain , rubber , aluminium, organic dirt the list goes on.)
OK so back story over Tannerite was assessed as and all states prohibited the use of the product due to
a - it contained SSAN when in its component parts.
b - its a class 1 explosive when mixed.
c - its illegal to shoot explosives.
d - people in this country were hurt badly with it.
so yeah ..its illegal for good reason
bt