Highlights
- Residents of Newcastle have expressed fears about the town’s vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate
- Mining company Orica said stringent practices are in place to ensure its safe storage and handling
- Experts insists that explosion in an Australian facility was low, but cannot be discounted
A Beirut explosion killing at least 135 people has renewed concerns from community members living near an even larger stockpile of the chemical responsible in Newcastle.
About 6,000 to 12,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate is stored at mining company Orica's Kooragang Island plant, about four times the amount that had been stored in the port facility in Lebanon.
The plant is just three kilometres from Newcastle's C-B-D, with some residents living as close as 800 metres to the facility.
Chemical engineer and community campaigner Keith Craig says an explosion could have dire consequences.
"Over the years, over 40 or so major explosions of ammonium nitrate. This is just the latest one. So it's really a major concern; even though the likelihood is low, the outcome is catastrophic. So it's just a high-risk plant you don't have near communities"
Concerned Newcastle residents have been calling for the stockpile level to be lowered or the complete relocation of the plant.
Dr Chi Phan, a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Curtin University in Western Australia says residents shouldn't compare the risk to what happened in Beirut. Storage in Beirut was apparently without safety protocols and there were fireworks stored nearby.
"But from my understanding with the facility in Newcastle they follow a very strict procedure in handling the material and they've put it further away from any flammable material. And they've had a good track record for so long I'm pretty sure whatever procedures they have, they are adequate"
Mining company Orica insists its operations at Kooragang Island are highly regulated by authorities.
A statement from the company says they comply with New South Wales government risk assessment criteria.
"You have to be extremely negligent with ammonium nitrate for it to explode. The explosion in Beirut cannot be compared to the responsible and heavily regulated production, storage and transport of ammonium nitrate by Orica and others in Australia. Ammonium nitrate storage areas at Kooragang Island are fire-resistant, are built exclusively from non-flammable materials, and we have designated exclusion zones around these areas."
