The company said operations on Kooragang Island were highly regulated under numerous state and federal standards, and the facility holds a Major Hazard Facility licence.
"We regularly undertake site-wide emergency response exercises, including an annual exercise with the local emergency services. "But given the scale of the event in Lebanon I think Orica needs to review things and reassess what would happen here.WatchThe massive blast in Beirut was captured by onlookers who were filming the fire at the port.Orica is licensed to produce up to 385,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate a year, of which the bulk is used to produce explosives for the Hunter's coal mining industry.
bmillington Maybe the problem as seen as intractable. Probably because removal would involve truck transport through Newcastle streets?
How entirely irresponsible of the ABC to report this. Typical left who hate all business. How about people not encroach on industrial sites? Live elsewhere. It’s been there a long time
Yes Orica Kooragang makes a couple of grades of NH4NO3 , - Nitropril©, Opal™ I have a copy a recent report of the risks posed by their plant on hand too. From the independent safety report for Orica No measureable explosion risk to Stockton or Carrington .
Don't worry, everyone. Terrorists will respect our rules and regulations.
bmillington Ben, please, please stay with this story! I understand industrial risk management. I can tell you whilst the likelihood of an accident is very low the probablity is not zero. The conseqences would be catastrophic...and three km from the CBD wtf!
It just doesn’t go bang on it’s own accord.
sallyjsara This should have alarm bells ringing loud and clear. 3,000 tonnes of this stuff in one place is a catastrophie waiting to happen.
Would be checking that out thoroughly!!
So you're comparing a professional, highly safety motivated storage facility with a warehouse that most likely had more than just ammonium nitrate stored in it? I bet the people who seized it didn't even do a simple risk assessment...
Leveling Newcastle would probably be a good start 🤷🏻♂️
Need to move all these highly explosives to outback area where there are no people living. How careless is Governments world wide not to ever enforce this
beneltham See also SS Grandchamp, Galveston Bay, Texas, 16/04/1947. 2,000 tonnes ammonium nitrate exploded. 581 dead, 8,500 injured. Still one of USA’s worst industrial “accidents”. Stockpiling any amount of this unstable, highly dangerous product anywhere near a populated area is lunacy.
Hello!!! Wake up !! We are at risk too
If it was there when you moved to Stockton, then its a bit like moving next to the airport and whinging about the noise.
That’s It abc let get this information and location out into the public arena so any would be brainwashed middle eastern mental case will know just where to look to create destruction. I’m certain storage protocols are more stringent than that in Lebanon but a determined man?
Im no expert but would it be fair to say that a stockpile of this type of chemical would explode and pop multiple times and not without help be capable of just 1 huge explosion ?
sallyjsara Orica must be informed by the observed experience. Get the stockpile out of the metropolitan area. Risk of accident is small but consequences too big for even that small risk.
ScottMorrisonMP AlboMP SenatorWong GladysB Well, this is interesting!!!!!
Oh. That's a worry
Newcastle would still look the same
MdmAbsentMinded We dodged a bullet when Coode Island went up in Port Melbourne. Has it been moved? These facilities should be far away from populous areas.
It's not just a matter of whether they think they have enough contingencies, large quantities of highly explosive substances shouldn't be kept anywhere near populated areas.
MSMWatchdog2013 find out about Santos' proposal to build an ammonium nitrate plant
Great everyone knows where this is now. Time to ramp up security.
So wait, they don't know if they have 6 or 12k tonnes? Big difference.. Surely they would know how many tonnes they have closer than that or are these numbers sensationiolised and just made up
Wait - what?
Much larger!? Yikes
Surely we are storing it correctly rather than dumping it in a warehouse
Insignificant man calls the ABC and says a company stores a chemical. Alarm bells...
Now China has a target 😉
It needs to be mixed with diesel and other processes before ammonium nitrate explodes like it did.
Reminder re Incitect Pivot, their relocation and plant changes in Port Adelaide due to similar risk considerations (2013 onwards)
Fuck 😱
Time to move it!
Just make sure you start welding those doors shut from now!
I suspect that who’s looking after it is a relevant factor...
Gulp!
Can't believe an explosion like that , with such a lateral shock wave was a industrial accident. I leaning towards an attack that went horribly wrong.
How on earth does the Gov think this is ok?!
Umm WHAT!!!!
bmillington An explosion of ammoniumnitrate in Newcastle, NSW, would in all likelihood destroy the coal export terminals and draw the world's attention to Australia's addiction to fossil fuels! auspol
Oh good
By whom. I haven’t heard one person raise a concern. This sounds like more bullshit 🤔
Fortunately it's not very close to residential areas, it's on an island about 6km from the nothern most suburbs of Newcastle and a similar distance from Stockton ( across the river ). And the engineers in charge take safety very seriously. Nor is it making explosive grade NH4NO3
Shame the ABC hasn’t done its homework on how ammonium Nitrate explodes... it requires 2 other critical components and know how. It’s safe in its storage and highly regulated. Do the research and quit the scaremongering
Do we have Hezbollah franchisee in Australia too?
Yeah time to check for safety🥺
I would be less concerned if you weren't publicising the location.
It's pathetic that ABC try for an Australian 'angle' on a massive disaster in Lebanon, just stop.
I'm sure Orica takes more care than a warehouse in Beirut that no one was responsible for. Also Orica was there first so if you don't like it near you, you should move.
JohnsonMatthewM just what we were speaking about today
Bugger is that true
Is Israel going to bomb our ammonium nitrate stockpile too?
Wont be a problem, just don't store ammunition, rocket fuel and missile warheads and you wont see a repeat of Beirut.
That wasn’t all that was involved, about 100000 kgs of something or other went bang, going by the way the shock front bent sound ahead of it’s self.
Chill. Don't store a port's fuel oil around it OR accept other people's contaminated stuff. Oh. Also. Don't store fireworks there either. Simples!
Ammonium Nitrate will take full responsibility if anything goes wrong.
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