Ammunition storage safety

After World War I, ammunition and explosives which had been returned from combat areas accumulated in United States storage depots which were inadequate for the safe storage of such large quantities. Many incidents, fires, and explosions occurred involving these stores. House Document 199, Ammunition Storage Conditions, became the foundation for much of the planned development of explosives safety standards as we know them today. 

AASTP-4, Explosives Safety Risk Analysis - Part II. Allied Ammunition Storage and Transport Publication (AASTP), 2006. 

Fixed and Semi-Fixed Ammunition Testing and Surveillance. The following description is taken from the Safety and Storage Manual for Explosives and Ammunition ... 

Safety Precautions. Fixed and Semi-fixed ammunition should never be dropped, rolled or thrown, and as long as this is observed, there is little danger in handling it Refs 1) US Army Chief of Ordnance, "Safety and Storage Manual for Explosives and Ammunition", OO Form No 5994, Washington,... 

US Army, Chief of Ordnance, "Safety and Storage Manual , OO Form No 5994, Washington, DC(1928), seen XI,pp 3 4 3)Anon, "Ammunition Inspection Guide , War Dept Tech Manual, TM 9-1904, Washington, DC(1944), 772-7 4)R.D. 

Safe separation studies were conducted to achieve increased production and cost effectiveness with improved safety. A typical ammunition production line flow diagram (in this case for the manufacture of 105 mm projectile) consists of several work areas as shown in Fig 8. ( (l) Receiving and storage, (2) Box open and inspect (3) Melt Pour (U) Cool (5) Hold (6) Funnel Pull and (T) Riser Preparation.) Explosive material is transferred by automatic conveyor between these work areas. The requirement was to establish safe separation between explosive boxes, pallets with and without funnels, buckets, and to determine critical height of continuous feed flake Comp B and TNT. The objective of these tests was to establish minimum nonpropagation distances between these items so that an explosion chain reaction will be prevented. 

Today, DDESB is concerned with the same explosives safety aspects of munitions manufacture, storage, transportation, and disposal as was recommended by Congress in 1928. An additional functional area added in 1968 by the Secretary of Defense is the establishment of chemical safety standards and a chemical safety program for chemical agents and components of chemical ammunition. 

Sax (1968), 208—26 (Storage and handling of hazardous materials) 3) Anon, DOD Ammunition and Explosives Safety Standards , Office of the Asst Secretary of Defense, Installations Logistics, DOD 4145.27M (March 1969), 3-1 to 3-14 (Principles and application of quantity-distances, standard explosives facilities and siting requirements) 4) Anon, Safety—... 

---