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AZF Toulouse Explosion Investigation Continues |
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Weeks after a chemical plant explosion in southern France that killed 29 people and injured
4,400, investigation teams continue to search for the cause of the explosion.
The September 16 event was truly of world-scale proportions and probably went mostly
unnoticed due to the U.S. terrorist attacks just five days before. Current theories focus on the theory that the explosion was an accident. Local judicial investigators, Environment Ministry officials and experts from TotalFinaElf, the plant's owner, have been carrying out parallel investigations of the site. Judicial investigators in an internal report said they believed a mixture of sulfuric acid and lime and soda powders at the plant could have led to ignition that set off the explosion. Authorities and company officials have said the blast was sparked in a silo containing 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical produced at the plant, which can be used in fertilizer or explosives. The AZF plant, where 460 people worked, is among 372 sites in France classified under a European Union directive as high-risk, meaning that extra security precautions must be taken. The high-risk designation, officially named "Seveso," was put in place after a 1976 chemical disaster in the Italian village of Seveso, where a pharmaceutical factory malfunctioned, producing a toxic cloud containing dioxin. The large number of offsite injuries and damage will no doubt cause concern for the adequacy of the regulations and for the siting of facilities near public and environmental receptors. The ammonium nitrate stored in the warehouse consisted of industrial nitrates that were reported not to meet commercial specifications and had been bulk stored after the bags that they were packaged in had "cracked", and ammonium nitrate recovered from the production unit. Under normal storage conditions, ammonium nitrate is poses a low risk potential. Only an increase in temperature (between 160 °C and 200 °C) can cause an explosion. Ammonium nitrate is a commonly used industrial chemical. For further details about the incident, go to CSB CIRC at http://www.chemsafety.gov/circ/post.cfm?incident_id=5247 or the United Nations Toulouse website at http://www.uneptie.org/pc/apell/disasters/toulouse/home.html Prior to this event, the most significant event involving ammonium nitrage in world history had been the Texas City, Texas explosion in 1947, For information on this ship fire/explosion, go to http://www.texas-city-tx.org/docs/exp.htm Source: CSB CIRC and UNEPTIE To go back to the AcuSafe News, click here. Go to AcuSafe. AcuSafe is a presentation of AcuTech Consulting, ©2002, All Rights Reserved
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