A lot of expensive and lethal weapons of war have been reported missing this week. There have been numerous train derailments in America this year, and trains containing lethal materials routinely do not make it to their final destination. A railcar holding over 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate left Cheyenne, Wyoming, on April 12. The railcar was discovered two weeks later, completely empty, at a stop in the California Mojave Desert.
Ammonium nitrate can be used as fertilizer or as a powerful explosive. This is the same chemical used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 2020 bombing of Beirut, Lebanon.
Miners commonly use this chemical as a fuel source to remove massive rock formations since it is so effective. Manufacturing company Dyno Nobel reported the shipment missing to the National Response Center on May 10. “The railcar was sealed when it left the Cheyenne facility, and the seals were still intact when it arrived in Saltdale [Calif.].
The initial assessment is that a leak through the bottom gate on the railcar may have developed in transit,” a spokesperson told the media. Another spokesperson told the New York Post that “there is no indication of any danger to the public and no indication the pellets were intentionally taken by anyone.” The company insists that the contents in the pellets “fell from the rail car onto the tracks in small quantities throughout the long trip.”
Should we believe the railcar casually fertilized the ground amid its long trip? Dyno Nobel markets itself as an explosive company, and their contents were never intended for fertilization. “All accidents are preventable. Injuries, illnesses, and environmental damage are not an inevitable consequence of conducting business,” the company states on its website. Given that this company specializes in explosives, it is peculiar that they would have such a major failing that they are reporting as an accident.
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