
Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Houston - mbgaxyz
http://www.arkema-americas.com/en/social-responsibility/incident-page-2/
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wlesieutre
Headline doesn't provide any context, this is a chemical plant near Houston
that makes organic peroxides. With 6 feet of flooding and loss of power it's
probably going to blow up.

News outlets have more info: [http://abcnews.go.com/US/risk-chemical-plant-
explosion-houst...](http://abcnews.go.com/US/risk-chemical-plant-explosion-
houston-prompts-evacuation-harvey/story?id=49521170)

Anyone in a 1.5 mile radius has been instructed to evacuate.

~~~
londons_explore
The blast zone of Hiroshima was less than 1.5 miles. What on earth were they
storing there?

~~~
SAI_Peregrinus
Powerful oxidizers. The PEPCON disaster in 1988 was a different oxidizer,
ammonium perchlorate:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster)

Derek Lowe has a good post on some very strong peroxides:
[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/thi...](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/things_i_wont_work_with_peroxide_peroxides)

Of course quantity matters. But messing about with strong oxidizers is scary.
The article doesn't say which organic peroxide it is, and that matters a lot
too.

Edit: Given the list of products made at the site[1] (PVC, acrylic paints,
etc) it might be MEKP[1]. That's quite a strong explosive.

[1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170830090410/http://www.arkema...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170830090410/http://www.arkema-
americas.com/en/arkema-americas/united-states/crosby-tx/) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_ethyl_ketone_peroxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_ethyl_ketone_peroxide)

~~~
vvanders
Uf, ammonium perchlorate is literally rocket fuel, they use it in the SRBs and
for a lot of amateur rocketry.

~~~
ams6110
It's not rocket fuel itself, it's an oxidizer. Storing it in aluminum bins as
PEPCON did strikes me as quite risky, since aluminum powder with such an
oxidizer would make a good solid rocket fuel or explosive. As a kid, friends
and I used to make our own fireworks with ammonium nitrate fertilizer. These
days if you buy much of that and aren't a farmer you'll likely get a visit
from serious men in dark suits.

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Xoros
On 9/21/01 (yes, 10 days after), there were a big chemical incident in
Toulouse, France (one of Airbus Headquarter).

The AZF plant exploded [0], blasting windows on thousand meters radius,
killing directly 17 persons and wounded thousands.

I was at the other side of the town (not as big as Houston) and wall trembled.
A friend of mine who lived about 50 miles away had her windows vibrate.

It was a terrible thing. But less than half a miles were the SNPE (National
Powder and Explosive Company) and it could have turned in a major blast with
thousand of death by the explosion and leak of mustard gas that were also
stocked there.

The question was, and still is in my opinion : why on earth do you build
chemicals plant that have a risk to explode near habitations ?!! (Or in
reverse why authorize building habitations near Seveso 2 plant ?)

[0]
[http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/21/france.explos...](http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/09/21/france.explosion/index.html)

~~~
flukus
Makes you wonder how terrorist proof those places are and what could be
accomplished with a drone and a small bomb.

~~~
Xoros
Since it was ten days after 9/11, there are a lot of terrorist theory for that
explosion.

Some even said that they saw a missile fired from a tower nearby.

~~~
jurip
The thing with terrorists is that they tend to announce it when they do
something, otherwise it's a bit pointless.

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juancampa
The article is now back up and updated:

> The most likely outcome is that, anytime between now and the next few days,
> the low-temperature peroxide in unrefrigerated trailers will degrade and
> catch fire.

> Any fire will probably resemble a large gasoline fire. The fire will be
> explosive and intense. Smoke will be released into the atmosphere and
> dissipate.

It's not clear to me if an explosion is expected or just for it to "catch
fire".

~~~
williamscales
It sounds like it's in a container, so it will likely explode when it burns. I
wonder if they have some kind of pressure release system for those.

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randrews
Looking up "organic peroxide explosion" on YouTube was enough to make me very
glad I'm on the other side of the city from this place...

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trapperkeeper74
The information sheet now names the brand of the organic peroxides: Luperox -
peroxyketal, and its (M)SDS.

 _Chemical Name_

Peroxide, (3,3,5- trimethylcyclohexylidene)bis[(1,1- dimethylethyl)

Cyclohexanone, 3,3,5-trimethyl-

Hydroperoxide, 1,1-dimethylethyl

Source:
[http://www.quickfds.com/out/18141%2D37780%2D19064%2D019606.p...](http://www.quickfds.com/out/18141%2D37780%2D19064%2D019606.pdf)

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aaronbrethorst
Rachel Maddow has been reporting on this last night and again tonight. More
info here: [http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/harvey-damaged-
arke...](http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/harvey-damaged-arkema-
chemical-plant-explosion-expected-1036436548001)

~~~
mercer
Is Rachel Maddow considered relatively 'normal' within the news landscape of
the US? I'm just kind of taken aback by how gleefully dramatic she is, and how
relatively little information she produces with so many words.

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juancampa
I wonder if folks from companies like Boston Dynamics have thought of
amphibious robots for situations like these

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mirimir
I presume that Arkema carries insurance for accidents. I wonder if rates in
flood-prone areas are increasing.

~~~
emodendroket
They are. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/magazine/when-rising-
seas...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/magazine/when-rising-seas-
transform-risk-into-certainty.html)

~~~
mirimir
Well, I know that residential rates are increasing. But I was wondering about
rates for chemical plants and such.

~~~
emodendroket
I can't imagine that commercial rates would stay the same if residential ones
are rising.

~~~
mirimir
It would make sense.

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mbgaxyz
Archived post:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20170830230931/http://www.arkema-...](http://web.archive.org/web/20170830230931/http://www.arkema-
americas.com/en/social-responsibility/incident-news/)

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tmarman
I am not making light of the situation AT ALL - but it's sort of weirdly
ironic that the link goes to a 404 page in their "Social Responsibility"
section.

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schoen
Their post on the incident has apparently moved to

[http://www.arkema-americas.com/en/social-
responsibility/inci...](http://www.arkema-americas.com/en/social-
responsibility/incident-page-2/)

Maybe the link should be updated to point there.

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hedora
404, but archive.org got it:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20170830230931/http://www.arkema...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170830230931/http://www.arkema-
americas.com/en/social-responsibility/incident-news/)

~~~
burntrelish1273
Dupe, please delete.

