Article

2004-04-14 Europe

European Regulations Reduce Effectiveness of Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizers as Bomb Component

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Posted by Mike Sylwester 2004-04-14 11:06:02 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Excellent idea. What ever happened to the micro-tag technology they were working on? Microtrace seems to be one of the few that are still developing this product. Here's some background on it:

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FOOTNOTE: EXPLOSIVES TAGGING

One interesting area of explosive technology are "tagging" systems that allow the identification of the origin of an explosive that was used, for example, in a terrorist bombing. While analysis of the chemical composition of blast residues can help identify the type of explosive, the ability to trace explosives by production batch is much more useful.

One explosives tagging technology has been around for several decades. Microtrace Incorporated of Blaine, Minnesota, markets a "MicroTag" scheme that was invented in the 1970s by a chemist at 3M Corporation named Richard Livesay.

3M developed and sold the MicroTag system, which is based on tiny chips, each about the size of a grain of pepper, that are built as a stack of up to 10 colored layers. A batch of chips with a particular "rainbow" code is mixed with a particular batch of explosives to permit its identification. A US government-mandated test of the tags that required their use in 1% of commercially produced explosives made from 1977 through 1979 demonstrated no real problems with the technology, and even led to the solution of one bombing. The Swiss, who were early adopters of the technology, have solved hundreds of bombing incidents through the use of the tags.

However, a disastrous accident at an explosives factory in 1979 was blamed on the tags, and led to a lawsuit against 3M. Though the company won the case, they got out of the taggant business, selling it to Livesay, who founded Microtrace. Most of Microtrace's customers use the MicroTags to protect goods, like shampoo and alcohol, from counterfeiters.

A subtler tagging technology is being marketed by Isotag LLC in Houston. The Isotag scheme is based on inert heavy molecules, uniquely keyed by selectively substituting deuterium (heavy hydrogen) atoms for ordinary hydrogen in the molecular structure. It has been used in applications such as identifying batches of petroleum sent through pipelines, and for tagging batches of ammonium nitrate."

Posted by Zenster 2004-04-14 11:56:58 PM|| 2004-04-14 11:56:58 PM|| Front Page Top

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