The question though is at what rate will things happen. Not everything degrades that way as well. The ideal state would be everything degrades such that when those that do become more sensitive explode there isn't enough else still explosive (because it degraded to nonexplosive) and so we don't get the secondary explosions that makes the whole dangerous.
We are also hoping that future technology will figure out a better way to handle this.
Sounds like each consecutive politician making a gamble that, if it actually does explode and kill people, it will be during someone else's term in the office.
Trying to remove it is also a gamble though: if anything goes wrong the bomb squad dies and it destroys everything anyway. There are no good answers, and it hasn't gone wrong yet.
> When the condition of the munitions was originally assessed there was concern that copper azide, an extremely sensitive explosive, would be produced through reaction between lead azide and copper from fuze components (lead azide would react with water vapour, rather than liquid water, to form hydrazoic acid, which could react with copper in the detonating cap to form copper azide).
> An investigation by New Scientist magazine in 2004, based partly on government documents released that year, concluded that the cargo was still deadly, and could be detonated by a collision, an attack, or even shifting of the cargo in the tide. The deterioration of the bombs was so severe that they could explode spontaneously.
As dynamite bundles age past their recommended shelf life, the absorbing material degrades, and the liquid nitroglycerin begins to seep or "sweat" out of the matrix.
The question though is at what rate will things happen. Not everything degrades that way as well. The ideal state would be everything degrades such that when those that do become more sensitive explode there isn't enough else still explosive (because it degraded to nonexplosive) and so we don't get the secondary explosions that makes the whole dangerous.
We are also hoping that future technology will figure out a better way to handle this.
Sounds like each consecutive politician making a gamble that, if it actually does explode and kill people, it will be during someone else's term in the office.
Trying to remove it is also a gamble though: if anything goes wrong the bomb squad dies and it destroys everything anyway. There are no good answers, and it hasn't gone wrong yet.
Source?
One example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Richard_Montgomery
> When the condition of the munitions was originally assessed there was concern that copper azide, an extremely sensitive explosive, would be produced through reaction between lead azide and copper from fuze components (lead azide would react with water vapour, rather than liquid water, to form hydrazoic acid, which could react with copper in the detonating cap to form copper azide).
> An investigation by New Scientist magazine in 2004, based partly on government documents released that year, concluded that the cargo was still deadly, and could be detonated by a collision, an attack, or even shifting of the cargo in the tide. The deterioration of the bombs was so severe that they could explode spontaneously.
As dynamite bundles age past their recommended shelf life, the absorbing material degrades, and the liquid nitroglycerin begins to seep or "sweat" out of the matrix.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite
TNT or Dynamite will 'sweat' crystals as it is aging.
https://www.munirem.com/recovery-and-neutralization-of-dynam...