http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate
anhydrous ammonia is the same as ammonium nitrate. You’re probably right in that the owner had trusted managers he let run the plant on his behalf.
I’d be interested in why the plant wad producing so much ammonium nitrate, unreported, if they are supposed to,report anything over 400 lbs.
The 400 lb rule doesn’t make a lot of sense for a factory that makes the stuff by the ton.
“I need to file a report if I have 400 lb?”
“Yes.”
“OK, I have 40,000 lbs. Here’s my form, now make 365 copies of it for the next year.”
I think you meant to say:
"anhydrous ammonia is NOT the same as ammonium nitrate."
Gaseous ammonia is used to make ammonium nitrate, which is a fertilizer.
I looked this up...100 lbs per acre is considered a “light fertilizing,” so a tiny farm of 40 acres will use 4,000 lbs in just one light application. 400 lb is a ridiculously small amount for a fertilizer plant.
Beg to differ...apparently it is not! According to the ever-reliable Wiki:
The processes involved in the production of ammonium nitrate in industry, although chemically simple, are technologically challenging. The acid-base reaction of ammonia with nitric acid gives a solution of ammonium nitrate:[13] HNO3(aq) + NH3(l) → NH4NO3(aq) For industrial production, this is done using anhydrous ammonia gas and concentrated nitric acid. This reaction is violent and very exothermic.
It seems that anhydous ammonia needs to be mixed with nitric acid to produce the highly volatile (under certain conditions?) ammonium nitrate...and that's not to say that anhydrous ammonia by itself isn't also dangerous under certain circumstances.
I would agree whole-heartedly that anyone dealing with any of these chemical compounds needs to know what they're doing, regardless of government oversight. A former neighbor of ours blew himself up trying to make his own "super fertilizer"...he wasn't a terrorist, just a "do-it-yourself" gardening idiot, may he rest in peace.
The "plant" didn't produce anything.
It, like the "propane plants" in our town, was a sales/storage facility: it sold fertilizer to farmers; and bought/stored their harvested grain.
They did report the 270 tons of ammonium nitrate to state regulators (and perhaps other fed agencies) but not to DHS.
That amount is enough to fertilize from about 2,500 to 6,000 acres, depending on crop, starting fertility level, and number (if any) of re-applications during the growing season.