# Explosives factory in Tennessee extremely explodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853 "2025-10-10T18:18:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/21 "2025-10-11T23:46:41Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > So do you mean that it was probably not sabotage or that sabotage is particularly easy to perform and disguise in that kind of facility? Probably not sabotage; a facility with the kind of violations indicated in the _Tennessean_ article is primed for a serious accident. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/22 "2025-10-11T23:47:01Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Having worked with ordnance and propellants for going on twenty-five years I don’t think there is a single production facility that I’ve been to that hasn’t had some kind of serious incident in its history even if not as dramatic as this one, It requires some serious safety precautions at an explosives plant to have a serious incident that isn’t as dramatic as this one. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/23 "2025-10-12T00:00:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It requires some serious safety precautions at an explosives plant to have a serious incident that isn’t as dramatic as this one. Well, if there were appropriate monitoring, physical separation of hazardous operations, and energetic materials properly segregated in storage there shouldn’t be an opportunity for a mass detonation or immolation as this appeared to be. Any facility where there was a potential for this kind of ‘incident’ shouldn’t have had 18 or more people in it, and frankly if there were operations that required the handling of that much raw, easily initiated energetic material in sufficient proximity to cause a sympathetic detonation or violent conflagration it should have been a remote operation. So, this was probably not a situation where someone made just a single mistake but a compounding of safety lapses, lack of controls, and trying to process too much materials or products in too small of an area without consideration for the potential hazard. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/24 "2025-10-12T10:25:22Z")
When the heat is on to produce more, and turn over the stock quickly, sometimes practises which would not be tolerated in peacetime creep in. > **[RAF Fauld explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion)** > > The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11 am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest on UK soil. > Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes (3,900 and 4,400 tons) of ordnance exploded, mostly high explosives. The explosion crater has a depth of 100 feet (30 m) and a maximum width of 1,007 feet (307 m) although different sources have ... ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/25 "2025-10-12T13:33:11Z")
a side note: calling claymore mines “solutions” in their blurb is disquieting. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/26 "2025-10-12T14:19:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > What could possibly go wrong in Bucksnort, apparently named after a place where you could get a snort of moonshine for a buck? If you stop and think about that for a minute, you would realize that a dollar a shot for cheap corn mash (sells for less than ten bucks a quart now, was around five bucks last year - making it yourself is cheaper) means either that nobody else in the county has access to corn and a big pot, or that the maker is very skilled and the product is well worth the money. (a quart is 32 ounces, a shot glass usually holds 1.25 to 1.5 ounces) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/27 "2025-10-12T14:21:56Z")
**There were no survivors.** [https://www.newser.com/story/376699/18-feared-dead-in-tennessee-plant-blast.html](https://www.newser.com/story/376699/18-feared-dead-in-tennessee-plant-blast.html) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/28 "2025-10-12T14:44:09Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Bucksnort, apparently named after a place where you could get a snort of moonshine for a buck? Bucks snort. > **[Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1neyk7a/a_deer_snorting_through_its_nostrils/)** I hear that sound in the dark maybe a hundred feet occasionally when I sit outside at night. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/29 "2025-10-12T17:32:59Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Having worked with ordnance and propellants for going on twenty-five years May I ask a question which you may not be allowed to answer in a public forum ? Is the loss of this factory a big problem for national security? Does the US military have enough other sources of explody-stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/30 "2025-10-12T18:00:30Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Does the US military have enough other sources of explody-stuff? I don’t think the loss of this relatively small facility compromises the ability of the United States to produce ordnance but in general people really don’t want propellant and explosives manufacturers nearby, not only because of the potential for fire and explosion but also due to the tendency for their constituents to leak into the nearby soil and water table. California, for instance, used to be host to three manufacturers of large solid propellant motors, all of which have either exited the business or moved to states that are notably lax about environmental regulation. It is no secret that there are substantial issues with defense-related critical supply chains as outlined in DoD report [“Securing Defense-Critical Supply Chains: An action plan developed in response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14017”](https://media.defense.gov/2022/Feb/24/2002944158/-1/-1/1/DOD-EO-14017-REPORT-SECURING-DEFENSE-CRITICAL-SUPPLY-CHAINS.PDF) which were a consequence of the drawdown and consolidation of defense industries in the post-Cold War environment. In general, producing munitions and ordnance has also become far more expensive, both due to environmental and occupational safety requirements, and because post-Vietnam War (and the ‘Secret Wars’ in Laos and Cambodia) there just hasn’t been the same volume of energetic materials produced for the military. [_NPR_: “Slow manufacturing and price gouging threaten the new U.S. military arms race”](https://www.npr.org/2023/04/07/1168725028/manufacturing-price-gauging-new-u-s-military-arms) > _The Cold War that followed kept U.S. weapons factories humming but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, that arms race all but ended._ > > _It was time for a “peace dividend” that would allow America to shift more of its vast economic firepower from guns to butter. The deputy secretary of Defense at the time, William Perry, called a meeting to break the news to the defense industry. It became known as “The Last Supper.”_ > > _He (Perry) told them that there was not going to be enough business to keep them all going, that they would need to consolidate," Cancian recounts. “So, industry listened and consolidated, and as a result was able to weather the transition to a post-Cold War environment. But it squeezed out a lot of capacity.”_ > > _Dozens of defense contractors collapsed post the Cold War, shedding about a third of U.S. military arms production capacity._ > > _It made perfect sense at the time but times have changed. Cancian says the country has entered a new era of potential wars with Russia and China. And, he says, the U.S. is not ready._ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/31 "2025-10-12T18:01:40Z")
I haven’t heard a single word about this on TV news. How is this possible??? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/32 "2025-10-12T18:04:48Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I haven’t heard a single word about this on TV news. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/l8DtxAusHlc/maxresdefault.jpg "Several killed after blast at Tennessee explosives facility") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8DtxAusHlc) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/33 "2025-10-12T21:05:07Z")
A similar consolidation followed the Great War, with most of the British firms joining Explosive Trades Limited, which soon renamed itself Nobel Industries Ltd before merging into I.C.I. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/34 "2025-10-12T21:33:06Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > There were no survivors. Yeah, the pictures I first saw sort of suggested that no one inside would make it. Even someone outside, but close, would get blasted and clobbered with debris. > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > calling claymore mines “solutions” in their blurb _Everything_ these days is a solution or an application, in corporatese. And hey, it’s a solution to your need to otherwise spend time and resources individually shooting the group of hostiles coming up that path. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/35 "2025-10-13T04:30:40Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > When the heat is on to produce more, and turn over the stock quickly, sometimes practises which would not be tolerated in peacetime creep in. > > [RAF Fauld explosion - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion) How about Port Chicago? # [Port Chicago Disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster) > From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > > The **Port Chicago disaster** was a deadly [munitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammunition "Ammunition") [explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion "Explosion") of the ship **SS _E. A. Bryan_** on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in [Port Chicago, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago,_California "Port Chicago, California"), United States. Munitions being loaded onto a [cargo vessel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_ship "Cargo ship") bound for the [Pacific Theater of Operations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic-Pacific_Theater "Asiatic-Pacific Theater") detonated, killing 320 [sailors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailor "Sailor") and [civilians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian "Civilian") and injuring at least 390 others. > ### **Speed contests and safety training** > > In April 1944, when Captain Kinne assumed command of Port Chicago, the loading officers had been pushing to load the explosive cargoes quickly—10 [short tons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_ton "Short ton") (9.1 [t](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne "Tonne")) per hatch per hour.[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-NavyFAQ804a-10) The desired level had been set by Captain Nelson Goss, Commander Mare Island Navy Yard, whose jurisdiction included Port Chicago Naval Magazine.[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-13) Most loading officers considered this goal too high.[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-NavyFAQ804a-10) On a chalkboard, Kinne tallied each crew’s average tonnage per hour.[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-Allen_44-12) The junior officers placed bets with each other in support of their own 100-man crews—called “divisions” at Port Chicago—and coaxed their crews to load more than the others. The enlisted men were aware of the bets and knew to slow down to a more reasonable pace whenever a senior officer appeared.[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-Allen_109-14) The average rate achieved at Port Chicago in the months leading up to July 1944 was 8.2 short tons (7.4 t) per hatch per hour—commercial stevedores at Mare Island performed only slightly better at 8.7 short tons (7.9 t) per hatch per hour.[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster#cite_note-NavyFAQ804a-10) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/36 "2025-10-25T17:28:39Z")
Estimate is that 0.012 kilotons exploded. > **[Chain reaction of blasts caused Bucksnort Accurate Energetic Systems deaths:...](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2025/10/24/tennessee-explosion-accurate-energetic-systems-update-cause-bucksnort/86855538007/)** > > Humphreys and Hickman counties officials held a news conference for the first time in over a week. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/37 "2025-10-25T17:50:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > 0.012 kilotons Is that the same as 12 tons ? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/38 "2025-10-25T18:11:40Z")
I vote yes. Seems easier to leave the decimal and the kilo off of that number. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/39 "2025-10-25T18:21:41Z")
Or you can say it was only 0.000012 megatons, which makes it seem even smaller. Saying “12 tons” is a figure most anyone can easily understand, and helps you realize, that’s freaking huge. The article itself actually says, “more than 24,000 pounds”. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853/40 "2025-10-25T19:12:04Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > …The article itself actually says, “more than 24,000 pounds”. So a little less than one (1) load of conventional bombs for a B-52 bomber. (Bomb load capacity for a B-52 bomber is about 70,000 lbs, and assuming about half of this is high explosive, and the other half is bomb casings, etc.) Or if you’re watching _Masters of the Air_ with WWII B-17 bombers (6,000-lb bomb load capacity for long-range missions): about eight (8) bomb loads. That would indeed be a lot of destruction for one bombing target. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explosives-factory-in-tennessee-extremely-explodes/1023853.md?page=3)