Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

A detonation occurred during the destruction of detonators by chemical reaction taking place in buckets. The buckets were filled with the destruction solution, and the cooling step by means of circulating cold water was initiated. The bucket containing the (50-g) detonators exploded after about 10 minutes. The bucket, the PVC pipe responsible for feeding the destruction solution and its support were all destroyed. The adjacent buckets were moved slightly but sustained no deterioration.

The workstation design (remote operations from behind a protective wall) provided an effective means of protection for the technician, who walked away from the incident completely unscathed.

A flaw in the set of working instructions caused the explosion; neither the high ambient temperature nor the heat associated with the exothermic reaction that triggered the explosion had been taken into account. The outside temperature parameter was to be incorporated into the operating procedure (during hot times of the year, waste destruction activity would take place at the beginning of the morning).