[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE: Redstone (AL) explosion process described

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Tragedy probed to prevent repeat

Officials request patience during investigation of May 5 explosion

By Kelley Lane Sivley
Alabama Live
May 19, 2010,


Two Redstone Arsenal events - one a May 10 press conference, the other a 
May 13 memorial service - were part of the grieving process in the 
acceptance of the deaths of two Team Redstone employees involved in 
high-risk research and development.

...

"In the past, the ammonium perchlorate still had particulates of other 
items from the propellant. We were not able to reuse it. We were 
refining the AP one more time to remove those impurities out," Turner 
said. "We had run several runs of this (particular) process and had 
gotten quality AP out. We were making necessary adjustments before 
making the transition (to using the process in demilitarization 
activities)."

If ammonium perchlorate is to be recycled, it needs to be in a pure form.

"They were trying to get the ammonium perchlorate as pure as they 
possibly could," Myles added. "As it becomes pure it has more value for 
warheads and agricultural purposes. Other processes (in the past) were 
really not a clean process at all ... They were repeating a process that 
had occurred before. We need to find out why this time the explosion 
occurred."

...

For the entire article, see
http://blog.al.com/redstone-rocket/2010/05/tragedy_probed_to_prevent_repe.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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