From: dfready@delphi.com (Douglas Ready)
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics,alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: UREA NITRATE  Reliability
Date: 23 Jun 1996 03:48:46 GMT

> ...
>Tell us more about this "liberation" of AN, Beavis.
>How much did they get and when did they get it?  

OK, here's the story as best I know it:

The Jayhawk Ordinance Works in Riverton, Kansas
was built around 1941 when it became obvious the
US was going to get sucked into WW2.  It was one
of 3 or 4 virtually identical plants built in the
middle of the US where they figured the Heinkels
wouldn't be able to get at them.   They made AN, 
gun-cotton, ammonia, methalol, and other explosive
stuff there during the War.  Later it became part 
of Spencer Chemical and then Gulf / Gulf Atomic and
then Thermex Energy.  Thermex went bust in the late
'80's ( 1987? ) and left the place completely 
unguarded.  There was a big warehouse filled to 
a height of at least 20 feet with AN. It had its
own air conditioning plant which was run by somebody
for a while after Thermex folded so the stuff wouldn't
get wet and degrade or do something nasty like happened
one time down in Texas and another time in CA.  Anyhow,
the fertilizer market got slack long about that time and
they couldn't get rid of all the stuff they had stock-
piled and the Development Board or whoever ran out of
money to keep looking after the place so they just let
it rot.  It didn't take long for the locals to figure out
that there was lots of good fertilizer in bags and in bulk
and all you had to do was drive in and load up.  

I remember one time in 1989 I went in there with a couple of friends
to show them the old "pilling towers" where they used to 
make AN and you could climb up and see for maybe 50 miles
all around on a clear day.  Anyhow, when we got in there were
3 or 4 guys loading up their trucks and we thought we were going 
to get shot or at least get our butts kicked so we split real quick.

Later on some guys got busted for snagging copper and AN and
other stuff from the abandoned plant, but there was still plenty
of chemical stuff including "red primer" and caps and other 
goodies lying all over the place at least until 1994 when
the Feds went in and cleaned the place out.  

I don't know how much AN got liberated out of there, but I
can say for sure it must have been hundreds if not thousands
of tons.  I mean those warehouses were BIG and everybody for
miles around knew about it for years.  To this day there are
lots of homes in the area with stainless steel plumbing and 
bags and bags of AN in the garage that came out of that plant

In 1994 they sent in a demolition crew and levelled the place
AFTER the World Trade Center thing.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but
I don't think so.  It's a matter of public record that at least
one of the guys they sent up for that little excapade had 
worked near there and certainly knew all about the AN and AP
that was in there.



Regards,
         /\/\../\/\
             `'      Beavis

From: glhurst@onr.com (Gerald L. Hurst)
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics,alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: UREA NITRATE  Reliability
Date: 23 Jun 1996 09:04:11 GMT

In article <9606222356591.DLITE.dfready@delphi.com>, dfready@delphi.com
(Douglas Ready) says:

>> ...
>>Tell us more about this "liberation" of AN, Beavis.
>>How much did they get and when did they get it?  
>
>OK, here's the story as best I know it:

Thank you for the interesting story, Beavis. The founder of Thermex 
was once upon a time an associate of the inventor of Kinepak (They 
started Kinetics international more or less together as a 
scientist/businessman alliance). Thermex started out with a product 
that some unkind souls say looked a lot like green Kinepak :)  
Thermex grew very rapidly and expanded into heavy tonnage bulk 
explosives before it withered.  The founder subsequently sued the 
biggest explosives company of them all for for allegedly causing 
Thermex's demise, and I understand won some $400,000,000 and change. 

Only in America.

Jerry (Ico)