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2026-05-24 Science & Technology

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Posted by badanov 2026-05-24 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1782 views ] Top

1 'Perhaps' preparing for war in the Arctic, OR preparing for any cold place (and there are a LOT of these, just not restricted to this planet) and it starts to look like off-planet environments becoming feasible-ish.

Never underestimate human ingenuity (and OBTW, never overestimate it either).

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2026-05-24 07:22|| 2026-05-24 07:22|| Front Page Top

2 this elegant, multi-million-dollar scheme conceals a fatal flaw

[AI]
PEPCON explosion

The **PEPCON disaster** occurred on **May 4, 1988**, at a chemical plant in **Henderson, Nevada**, where a fire triggered a series of massive explosions involving **ammonium perchlorate**, a key oxidizer for rocket fuel. The blasts killed **two people**, injured **372 others**, and caused approximately **$100 million** in property damage, leveling the plant and a neighboring marshmallow factory while shattering windows across a 10-mile radius of the Las Vegas Valley.

**Key Details:**
* **Cause:** The incident began when **welding sparks** from repairs to a wind-damaged building ignited accumulated ammonium perchlorate dust, which rapidly spread to storage drums and silos containing nearly 4,500 tons of the chemical.
* **Magnitude:** The explosions were among the largest non-nuclear detonations in U.S. history, with the largest blast registering **3.5 on the Richter scale** and yielding energy equivalent to **0.25 to 1.0 kilotons of TNT**.
* **Impact:** The disaster eliminated roughly half of the U.S. ammonium perchlorate production capacity at the time, significantly disrupting NASA’s Space Shuttle program and defense industries.
* **Aftermath:** The plant was completely destroyed, and the company eventually relocated its operations to Utah. The site remains fenced off, with ongoing remediation efforts to address residual chemical contamination.

Posted by Skidmark 2026-05-24 09:27|| 2026-05-24 09:27|| Front Page Top

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