Tennessee Military Explosives Plant Disaster and RDX Hazards - The_Bomb_s_Hidden_Cost

Thắng Huỳnh Quang

2 ngày trước

The provided sources focus primarily on the risks and consequences associated with military explosives, particularly RDX, in two distinct contexts. Several news excerpts describe a recent, deadly explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems, an explosives manufacturing facility in Tennessee, where many people are feared dead or missing, and the intensity of the blast was felt miles away. Other sources, including a lawsuit filing, examine an earlier 2019 explosion at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee, where an employee alleged he was wrongfully terminated after raising concerns about ignored safety protocols related to overheated RDX-based explosives. Finally, a detailed occupational health chapter provides a scientific overview of military energetic materials like RDX, discussing their chemical nature, historical use in warfare, and the significant health hazards and environmental contamination they pose to workers and communities, noting the Pentagon's long-standing efforts to downplay these risks.

Danh mục

🗞

Tin tức

Phụ đề

Hiển thị phụ đề video đầy đủ

00:00Welcome to The Explainer. Today, we're looking at what happens after the smoke clears from a

00:05massive explosion at a U.S. bomb factory. And, you know, this story starts with a really sudden,

00:09violent tragedy, but it opens up a much longer, much slower crisis, one that's been unfolding

00:15in America's own soil and water for decades. Just imagine saying that. This was the awful

00:22realization of a worker who had just clocked out, minutes before a catastrophic blast hit his plant

00:28in Tennessee. He was already home when his phone started blowing up with calls from friends,

00:34all asking him the same terrifying question. Was he still alive? His words are just chilling.

00:41He said his heart just sunk. Eighteen. That's the number of people reported missing and feared dead

00:47after the explosion. Aerial photos just showed nothing. Smoldering rubble where a factory used

00:52to be. The local sheriff, he summed it up with one devastating phrase. It's gone.

00:57So this tragedy in Tennessee, it's our starting point. But really, it's a doorway into a much,

01:03much bigger story. The materials that are made in these plants, well, they have a history that's

01:07completely tangled up with American military power, but also with these hidden dangers that stick

01:12around long after the weapons are ever built. If you look at the company's website, it talks about

01:18an eight-building facility that makes and tests explosives for the U.S. military.

01:22So that begs the question, what exactly are these incredibly powerful materials and what kind of

01:29risks have been built into them from the very, very beginning? To really understand what happened

01:35in Tennessee, we have to rewind the clock. We've got to go back to the pressure cooker of World War II.

01:40This was a time when the race for more powerful weapons led to a chemical breakthrough that would

01:45literally change warfare forever. The scientific name for these things is energetic materials. And

01:52really, you can think of them as the chemical engines of our modern military. They provide the raw force

01:57for everything, from tiny bullets and big artillery shells to massive rockets and bombs. And they work by

02:04unleashing just an incredible amount of heat and gas in a split second. Now, for the first half of

02:11the 20th century, TNT was king. It was the go-to military explosive. But during World War II, this new

02:18compound came on the scene and changed everything. It was called RDX, which stands for Research Department

02:25Explosive. And it was a genuine super explosive, one and a half times more powerful than TNT. It was

02:32absolutely critical to the Allied victory. In 1941, American chemists cracked the code for how to

02:38mass-produce this stuff, which allowed the U.S. to churn out 500 tons of it a day. So for over 75

02:44years now, RDX has been this mighty instrument of American military power. And get this, its production

02:50has been centered right there in Tennessee at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant, which is not far at all

02:55from the site of that tragic blast. But the incredible power of these explosives has always,

03:00come at a steep human price. And that price isn't just paid on the battlefield. It's also paid right there

03:06on the factory floor. 17,000. That's how many cases of TNT poisoning were recorded among U.S. workers

03:14during World War I. And this was long before RDX even existed. That toxic exposure alone, it led to more

03:21than 475 deaths. Yeah, historical records, they paint a really grim picture. Ammunition plants were just

03:28some of the most dangerous places you could work. People were handling these dusty, fuming compounds

03:33every single day. And it led to this whole host of devastating health problems. I mean, everything

03:38from fatal aplastic anemia, where your body literally just stops making blood cells, to severe seizures

03:44caused by that powerful new explosive, RDX. And don't think for a second that this is all just ancient

03:50history. This shows that the danger isn't just the risk of a huge catastrophic explosion. It's also the

03:56slow, toxic exposure to the chemicals themselves. We saw American soldiers in Vietnam and factory

04:02workers back home, both suffering seizures from RDX. This is a persistent danger of the job.

04:08And you know, this toxic legacy, it has a second life. It's a life that begins after the explosives

04:14leave the factory. Because the very same chemical properties that make RDX such a powerful weapon

04:19also make it a really persistent pollutant, one that seeps quietly into the American homeland.

04:26For decades, the wastewater from these plants, this telltale frothy pink mixture, was just dumped,

04:32poured into unlined pits and ditches. The big problem here is that RDX is unusually persistent,

04:38and it's very mobile in water. It doesn't really dilute or break down easily, which allows it to stay

04:44concentrated and just travel for miles and miles underground. So let's look at exactly how this

04:50contamination travels. A lawsuit out in Mapleton, Utah laid out the exact pathway. First, waste from

04:56an explosives plant seeped into a local irrigation canal. Then, that canal polluted the whole community's

05:02aquifer, their underground water source. And from there, the chemicals went right into people's taps

05:07and into the soil of their own home gardens. Now here's where it gets even more alarming.

05:12RDX doesn't just stay RDX. As it breaks down out there in the environment, it can actually morph

05:17into new chemicals, like nitrosamines. And nitrosamines are a family of some of the most

05:22potent cancer-causing agents known to science. So, in a way, the poison becomes even more poisonous

05:28over time. That lawsuit back in Mapleton alleged that all this contamination led to a cancer cluster.

05:35And experts in the case testified that eating vegetables like carrots or spinach grown with

05:40contaminated water was especially dangerous. Why? Because the plants can actually absorb and

05:45concentrate the chemicals, which could amplify a person's exposure by more than 280 times compared

05:50to just drinking the water. And look, this isn't just a story about old, leaky factories from decades

05:56ago. In the 1990s, an active military firing range on Cape Cod was found to be polluting the one and only

06:02source of drinking water for over half a million people. This just goes to show you that the problem is

06:07also created by the ongoing training that's required for military readiness, which, as you

06:12can imagine, sets up a major conflict. The explosion in Tennessee, it's really just the latest, most

06:18violent chapter in a story that's defined by this constant, difficult trade-off. The need to protect

06:23the nation versus the need to protect the nation's own environment and its own citizens from the very

06:27tools of that protection. According to one of the EPA's foremost authorities on this topic,

06:33cleaning up RDX contamination at military sites has been the single biggest challenge for his office.

06:40For decades, a battle has been raging behind the scenes between the EPA, whose job it is to protect

06:45public health, and the Pentagon. So the Department of Defense has consistently fought to limit its

06:51liability. The core of its argument is that strict environmental rules and really costly cleanups can

06:56interfere with readiness. That's the military's ability to train and prepare for combat. Over the years,

07:01they've sought exemptions from major environmental laws and even funded their own research that,

07:06well, often concludes RDX is less dangerous than EPA scientists believe.

07:10And this whole fight really came to a head over one question. How do you classify the cancer risk of

07:17RDX? Based on early animal studies that showed liver and lung tumors, the EPA was ready to call it a

07:24likely human carcinogen, and that classification triggers much stricter regulations. But after years of

07:30pressure and a wave of Pentagon-funded studies that raised doubts, the EPA adopted a weaker standard,

07:36suggestive of carcinogenicity. Critics basically argue that this decision protects the polluters more

07:42than it protects people. So at the end of the day, the explosion in Tennessee, the cancers in Utah,

07:48the poisoned water on Cape Cod, they're all consequences of a really difficult national choice.

07:53The very materials that were designed to keep the country safe abroad have created this toxic legacy

07:58right here at home, leaving all of us with a final vital question that we still haven't really figured

08:02out how to answer.

Hãy là người đầu tiên nhận xét

Thêm nhận xét của bạn

Được khuyến cáo