Is ammonium nitrate (on its own) explosive (Beirut)?
Euro:
Is ammonium nitrate (on its own) explosive (Beirut)?
don’t quote me but i believe that it is fairly stable however if subjected to heat it can explode. that’s why to make an explosive out of it it is mixed with something that easily combusts. However, im not a chemist so could well be wrong. just trying to remember what we did in our school work.
Is Ammonium Nitrate used as a nitrogen fertilizer like Nitram that was made by ICI if so can be mixed with diesel and is very expolsive banned in Northen Ireland Remember years ago going into ICI Sevenside to pick up 10ton Nitram and had about 10 5 gallon tins against the headboard had to show the loaders that they had molasses in otherwise would not load me.Also if a bag of Nitram was spilt on the floor when loading that was usually washed away with water as the Nitram dissolved in it The water was then treated to recycle the chemicals
Euro:
Is ammonium nitrate (on its own) explosive (Beirut)?
Hi Euro,
I’ve split your Beirut question from where you posted it because there’s no connection with compressed oxygen.
Ammonium Nitrate has quite a few entries in ADR, … some types of Ammonium Nitrate are counted as UN Class 1 (explosives,) most types of Ammonium Nitrate are counted as oxidisers (UN Class 5.1) and there’s even one type that’s listed in UN Class 9.
I’m not aware that the exact UN number for the stuff that exploded in Beirut has been made public, so anything discussed further in that regard is in the territory of speculation.
Then we have to add one other thing that we have been told… The Ammonium Nitrate that caused the explosion in Beirut had been stored in an unsafe manner, but we’re lacking any further firm facts that might help us better understand or explain how and why the explosion happened.
Euro:
Is ammonium nitrate (on its own) explosive (Beirut)?
I do know that when were making pipe bombs at school, just for fun not terrorism or attacking any neighbouring country 
the weed killer/fertilizer component was the oxidiser the sugar was the fuel both were harmless on their own.
Our system of ignition was surprisingly sophisticated the most complicated bit being stripping the glass from a small model type bulb while leaving the element intact.That was the fuse when connected to a battery. 
Compression is the next important bit.
I’d guess stacked 1 t pallet loads of the stuff suitably interspersed with a fuel source and source of ignition would make a biggish bang.
The fireworks that were stored in the same warehouse, didn’t help either…
dieseldave:
Ammonium Nitrate has quite a few entries in ADR, … some types of Ammonium Nitrate are counted as UN Class 1 (explosives,) most types of Ammonium Nitrate are counted as oxidisers (UN Class 5.1) and there’s even one type that’s listed in UN Class 9.
This must have just been in the don’t even go the… oh zb class. 
Heat up ammonium nitrate and you get…laughing gas. The irony.
Anyway, I blame the Israelis .
Ammonium nitrate explodes if heated to 250 degrees C. producing nitrogen, oxygen and steam. Used as a commercial explosive the oxygen combines with diesel or other fuel for increased efficiency.
Yer mean nitrous oxide then. Aka…Laughing gas.
Hezbollah
Ammonium nitrate is not explosive on its own, it’s used in different applications, I think they use it in explosive targets you can buy here from camping stores, I think it’s used in tannerite. I sometime haul ammonium nitrate prill (little white balls) up to the diamond mines in the northwest which they use to mix with diesel to make blasting explosives, anfo I think it makes. It’s produced in fertilizer plants and I believe is highly regulated here in Canada because of it being an ingredient in explosives but AN alone is not explosive but does sting like a ■■■■■ when you get some in your eye 
During WW1 the British tunnelled underneath the German trenches and planted explosive mines in the area around what is now the town of Mesen in Belgium . These were set off at the commenvement of the Battle of Messines ridge in 1917 in what is claimed to be the largest non nuclear explosion. However not all of these mines were set off. One exploded in 1955 when it or the trigger wiring was struck by lightning. Some are still there: just waiting.
Wheel Nut:
Hezbollah
What’s zb we’re gonna need a new warehouse in Arabic.
Carryfast:
Euro:
Is ammonium nitrate (on its own) explosive (Beirut)?I do know that when were making pipe bombs at school, just for fun not terrorism or attacking any neighbouring country
Our system of ignition was surprisingly sophisticated the most complicated bit being stripping the glass from a small model type bulb while leaving the element intact.That was the fuse when connected to a battery.Compression is the next important bit.
I’d guess stacked 1 t pallet loads of the stuff suitably interspersed with a fuel source and source of ignition would make a biggish bang.
You made pipe bombs in school? Was this ‘school’ a terrorist training camp in the desert?
Buckstones:
Ammonium nitrate explodes if heated to 250 degrees C. producing nitrogen, oxygen and steam. Used as a commercial explosive the oxygen combines with diesel or other fuel for increased efficiency.
And of course the reason this explosion was caught so well on camera is that people were already actually filming a big fire in the port near the area the stuff was stored.
switchlogic:
You made pipe bombs in school? Was this ‘school’ a terrorist training camp in the desert?
No just an early 1970’s Greater London Comprehensive.I guess they couldn’t make Please Sir more realistic in that regard because of the political climate in the day.We also did lesser activeties like nicking the bulbs from RT buses and finding they fitted in mains bulb holders to almost similar effect when the lights were switched on.
Conor:
Buckstones:
Ammonium nitrate explodes if heated to 250 degrees C. producing nitrogen, oxygen and steam. Used as a commercial explosive the oxygen combines with diesel or other fuel for increased efficiency.And of course the reason this explosion was caught so well on camera is that people were already actually filming a big fire in the port near the area the stuff was stored.
or according to this jizzwhisk:
Complicating matters is that U.S. President Donald Trump quickly asserted that the explosion was the result of an attack.
“Well it would seem like it based on the explosion," Trump said at a press briefing Tuesday. “I met with some of our great generals and they seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a, seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”
Why don’t Israel target this chump with a drone?
Wheel Nut:
Complicating matters is that U.S. President Donald Trump quickly asserted that the explosion was the result of an attack.
“Well it would seem like it based on the explosion," Trump said at a press briefing Tuesday. “I met with some of our great generals and they seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a, seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”
Why don’t Israel target this chump with a drone?
The area in question is a Christian area.It’s not rocket science to put 2 + 2 together.It did say the Generals are thinking along those lines not just Trump.The President listening to the advice of his defence chiefs who would have thought it. 
Carryfast:
Wheel Nut:
Complicating matters is that U.S. President Donald Trump quickly asserted that the explosion was the result of an attack.
“Well it would seem like it based on the explosion," Trump said at a press briefing Tuesday. “I met with some of our great generals and they seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a, seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”
Why don’t Israel target this chump with a drone?
The area in question is a Christian area.It’s not rocket science to put 2 + 2 together.It did say the Generals are thinking along those lines not just Trump.The President listening to the advice of his defence chiefs who would have thought it.
Absolutely not so.
Trump started saying it was a bomb. He later said, nobody knows. He said his generals thought it was a bomb.
None of his generals are on record as saying any such.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireSto … d-72190863
Trump just saying stuff without any recourse to expert advice, “who would have thought it”?