Purification, stabilizatin and storage of explosives

[Bert]

Conventional wisdom would be to never store any explosive, make it as needed and use it immediately. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible. Shit happens- If you make something and can't use it up immediately for some reason, it had better be storable. I'd go so far as to say it would be foolish to make ANYTHING without knowing stability under storage conditions and applying any pertinent purifications or other stabilizing measures (as you may find out the hard way you've stored something too long...)

If this thread seems worthy, I'd like those with both theoretical and PRACTICAL experience to put down their thoughts on this subject. There's a good bit of related information scattered throughout the forum piecemeal, I just think that assembling as much information on the subject in one place would be useful, and allow newbies to get a feel for the subject on an overall basis.

Let's start at the beginning-

Black powder

Very stable if made from pure materials, kept cool & dry it can easily last for centuries. The major purification/storage issue would be to assure the Potassium nitrate is pure, as Calcium, Ammonium or Sodium nitrates will render it hygroscopic. With modern Frasch process or refinery Sulfur there is no longer even a need to wash the Sulfur-

Take it away, guys! Who wants to do nitroglycerine?

[Pilathos]

The following is general comments relative to handling and storage of explosives, of a handbook of a manufacturing blasting caps company located at Pomptom Lakes, USA.


Dust Contamination. Every effort should be made to eliminate the possibility of dust contaminating the explosives. Insuring that powdwer buggies are completely closed, covering the OBC round boxes, paving the roadway at locations where explosives buggies will be traveling; providing filters for all blower motor inlets; and considering use of something other than earth for barricade mounding (or covering earth mounded barricades to reduce dust from erosion).

Humidification. All operations involving lead styphnate and boron-red lead requiere a minimun relative humidity of 75%. All operations involving pottasium chlorate, should be at a relative humidity no greater than 50%. In addition, lead styphnate must be preconditioned with humidity for at least one hour before handling.

Electrical Faciliites. All electrical instalations including lighting fixtures should be dust tight rather than explosion-proof.
All mootors in explosives buildings should be located outside of the barricade structure. Equipment drives should be connected by long shafts and blowers should operate through long air ducts. All temperature controls should be set to "fail-safe".

Conductive Floors. All manufacturing building where explosives are handled must have flooring of conductive linoleum or lead.

Grounding. All manufacturing equipment and furniture must be grounded. Each building must have a single grounding rod, to which all grounding will be done. Static grounding and power grounding must not be done on the same rod. Surfaces or wooden tables and benches must be covered with conductive linoleum or lead and grounded.

Personnel. All personel working with explosives must be provided with conductive soles and non-static generating clothing.

Preventive Measures.An instalation for detection of atmospheric static level advise when high levels be dangerous.