Weapon Weapons systems explosives safety

WEAPONS SYSTEMS EXPLOSIVES SAFETY REVIEW BOARD (WSESRB)... 

WSESRB Weapon Systems Explosives Safety Review Board... 

Handling, Preparation of Hazardous Materials For Military Air Shipment , TM 38-250 (1976) 34) Anon, Relevant Mil Specs for individual Ord items (various dates) 35) Anon, Operators and Organizational Maintenance of the (Individual) Weapons System , TM 9-1100-1115-XXX-12 or 20 (various dates) 36) Anon, Minutes of the Explosives Safety Seminar (Held Yearly). .. , Armed Services Expl Safety Board, Wash, DC (various dates)... 

Initiate contact with and support the Weapons Systems Safety Explosives... 

The WSESRB provides independent oversight of all ordnance items, weapon devices, systems, ordnance or weapons programs, or weapons support test systems used, handled, stored, or tested aboard U.S. Naval vessels, and ensures that appropriate explosives safety, system safety, and environmental requirements are adhered to. Every DON weapon system acquisition program and all other services weapons system programs representing a system destined to be deployed aboard a U.S. Naval vessel must be reviewed by the WSESRB. 

Many compounds explode when triggered by a suitable stimulus however, most are either too sensitive or fail to meet cost and production-scale standards, requirements for safety in transportation, and storage stability. Propellants and explosives in large-scale use are based mosdy on a relatively small number of well-proven iagredients. Propellants and explosives for military systems are manufactured ia the United States primarily ia government owned plants where they are also loaded iato munitions. Composite propellants for large rockets are produced mainly by private iadustry, as are small arms propellants for sporting weapons. 

The source of energy in a nuclear reactor is a fission reaction in which neutrons collide with nuelei of uranium-235 or plutonium-239 (the fuel), causing them to split apart. The products of a fission reaction include not only energy but also new elements (known as fission products) and free neutrons. A constant and reliable flow of neutrons is insured in the reactor by a moderator, which slows down the speed of neutrons, and by control rods, which limit the number of neutrons available in the reactor and, hence, the rate at which fission can occur. In a nuclear weapon, the fission chain reaction, once triggered, proceeds at an exponentially increasing rate, resulting in an explosion in a nuclear reactor, it proceeds at a steady, controlled rate. Most commercial nuclear power plants are incapable of undergoing an explosive nuclear chain reaction, even should their safety systems fail this is not true of all research reactors (e.g., some breeder reactors). 

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