Fire Science and Technology Inc., San Diego, CA, USA.
J Hazard Mater. 2016 Mar 5;304:134-49. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.10.040. Epub 2015 Nov 1.
Ammonium nitrate (AN) is a detonable substance which has led to numerous disasters throughout the 20th century and until the present day, with the latest disaster occurring on 17 April 2013. Needed safety lesson have not been learned, since typically each accident was viewed as a great surprise and investigations focused on finding some unique reason for the accident, rather than examining what is common among the accidents. A review is made of accidents which involved AN for fertilizer purposes, and excluding incidents involving ANFO or additional explosives apart from AN. It is found that, for explosions in storage or transportation, 100% of these disasters had a single causative factor-an uncontrollable fire. Thus, such disasters can be eliminated by eliminating the potential for uncontrolled fire. Two actions are required to achieve this: (1) adoption of fertilizer formulations which reduce the potential for uncontrolled fire and for detonation; and (2) adoption of building safety measures which provide assurance against uncontrolled fires. Technical means are available for achieving both these required measures. These measures have been known for a long time and the only reason that disasters continue to occur is that these safety measures are not implemented. The problem can be solved unilaterally by product manufacturers or by government authorities, but preferably both should take necessary steps.
硝酸铵（AN）是一种可爆炸物质，在 20 世纪及至今已导致了许多灾难，最近一次灾难发生在 2013 年 4 月 17 日。没有吸取必要的安全教训，因为通常每次事故都被视为一个巨大的意外，调查重点是寻找事故的独特原因，而不是检查事故中的共同点。本文回顾了涉及肥料用途的 AN 事故，不包括除 ANFO 或除 AN 以外的其他爆炸物的事件。结果发现，对于储存或运输中的爆炸，这些灾难中有 100%是由一个单一的致因——无法控制的火灾造成的。因此，通过消除火灾失控的可能性，可以消除此类灾难。要实现这一点，需要采取两项行动：（1）采用减少火灾和爆炸失控可能性的肥料配方；（2）采用建筑安全措施，以确保防止火灾失控。实现这两个必要措施都有技术手段。这些措施已经存在很长时间了，灾难继续发生的唯一原因是这些安全措施没有得到实施。问题可以由产品制造商或政府当局单方面解决，但最好是双方都应采取必要的措施。
