Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals (2018) / Chapter Skim
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2 Precursor Chemicals Used to Make Homemade Explosives
2 Precursor Chemicals Used to Make Homemade Explosives
Pages 23-36
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From page 23... ...
The majority of domestic incidents have used and continue to use commercial explosives, smokeless powder, black powder, flash powder, and pyrotechnic fillers as a main charge likely due to their ease of acquisition (e.g., purchasing 50 pounds of black powder requires no federal license or permit) .37,38 These materials have been used in high-profile incidents like the Boston Marathon bombing.4 However, 23
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From page 24... ...
CAN/IS 2,000 1993-World Trade Center Bombing (New York, NY) Urea Nitrate 1,200 1993-Bishopsgate Bombing (London, United Kingdom)
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From page 25... ...
TATP 40 2016-Ahmad Khan Rahami (New York/New Jersey) AN ET/BP/HMTD 10 NOTE: AN: ammonium nitrate, AN/FO: ammonium nitrate/fuel oil, BP: black powder, CAN: calcium ammonium nitrate, CHP: concentrated hydrogen peroxide, HMTD: hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, IS: icing sugar, NM: nitromethane, PETN: pentaerythritol etra itrate, TATP: triacetone t n triperoxide, TNT: trinitrotoluene.
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From page 26... ...
Cooking, a term borrowed from the narcotics enforcement community, is a more complicated manufacturing process to make HMEs wherein multiple precursor chemicals are mixed together and chemically react to form an explosive material. Triacetone triperoxide (TATP)
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From page 27... ...
Perhaps one of the best historical examples of the pitfalls of narrowly focusing on immediate events, at least in the context of precursor chemicals, is that of the response of the United Kingdom to the explosives produced by PIRA during its bombing campaign.42 The PIRA bombing campaign began around 1971 and employed devices filled with readily available dynamite stolen from quarries and mines. In parallel, during this time frame in the United States, groups such as Weather Underground, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN)
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From page 28... ...
. In 1991, approximately 19 years after its introduction, PIRA discovered that crushing the CAN prills into a powdered form using either industrial strength coffee grinders or barley crushers eliminated the need to isolate purified AN.
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From page 29... ...
IDENTIFYING AND PRIORITIZING PRECURSOR CHEMICALS USED IN IED ATTACKS Precursor chemicals used to produce HMEs for IEDs can be categorized by type and role as oxidizers, fuels (organic materials, energetic organic compounds, food products, or inorganic materials) , and synthesis chemicals (including strong and weak acids; Figure 2-2)
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From page 30... ...
30 RESTRICTING ACCESS TO EXPLOSIVE PRECURSOR CHEMICALS FIGURE 2-2 Long list of precursor chemicals sorted by chemical type and role. NOTE: Ca2+: calcium; Na+: sodium; K+: potassium; Ba2+: barium; NH4+: ammonium; AN: ammonium nitrate; CAN: calcium ammonium nitrate.
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From page 31... ...
Fuels include diesel and saw dust. Due to the lesser orders of magnitude in aviation IED and detonator charge masses -- lesser as compared to the VBIEDs and PBIEDs, described above -- the committee limited subsequent analysis to those VBIEDs and PBIEDs, both of which entail sufficient risk to merit consideration.
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From page 32... ...
Acetone is slightly less common than household fuels such as kerosene, but its use in academia and chemical processes makes it one of the most ubiquitous general solvents in the world. While acetone can be reacted with hydrogen peroxide to produce the explosive TATP, the committee did not include acetone on the short list because it is not considered a threat if appropriate steps are taken to control the peroxide component.14 By removing precursor chemicals used only in very small amounts and ubiquitous materials, such as food products, the committee narrowed the list of chemicals under consideration to just 28 chemicals, the short list.
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From page 33... ...
For example, as seen in Table 2-1 and Figure 2-1, urea nitrate has been used in HMEs in VBIEDs. To synthesize urea nitrate, the precursor chemicals urea and nitric acid are both required; thus, urea nitrate production could be blocked in the absence of either.
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From page 34... ...
Looking at the trend in Table 2-1, more bombing incidents are reporting smaller charge mass sizes, consistent with PBIEDs. Based on this trend, the committee chose to cast a wider net, by looking at precursor chemicals that can be used to manufacture VBIEDs or PBIEDs, and further prioritized the precursors using three criteria: suitability for large and small charge sizes, hence VBIEDs and PBIEDs; prior use; and dependency.
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From page 35... ...
PRECURSOR CHEMICALS USED TO MAKE HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVES 35 TABLE 2-2 Ranking of Precursor Chemicals into Three Groups NOTE: * See discussion for explanation of including UAN in Group A
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From page 36... ...
36 RESTRICTING ACCESS TO EXPLOSIVE PRECURSOR CHEMICALS somewhat subjective, and could change depending, for example, on the interpretation of existing data or a shift in terrorist tactics. Continuous reevaluation of the precursors is encouraged by the committee, as some of the rankings may change over time with an evolving threat environment.
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