Design and Manufacture of an Explosive Resistant Container

High Explosives (HE) are categorized as hazardous material. Despite all efforts taken to improve them in terms of safety, the likelihood of an accidental or occasional explosion in the handling of HE-containing items cannot be eliminated. One way to protect the environment from the impact of detonated HE is to confine the explosion inside an explosion-resistant container (ERC). Thus, an item posing the risk of explosion can be placed inside such a container so that if detonation occurs, the explosion products would remain inside the container. The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) explosive resistant container program consists of several projects performed under a variety of auspices. Early funding was provided by the U.S. Department of State, with follow-on testing work funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and eventually, a partner project via the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) involving SNL, VNIIEF and the U.S. private corporation NABCO, Inc. Several designs have been developed under these programs. VNIIEF developed the AT-595 explosive resistant container to meet requirements developed jointly with SNL via the U.S.-Russian Federation Warhead Safety and Security Exchange (WSSX) Agreement. The AT-595 is a cylindrical design with an inner steel liner and an outer fiber-wrapped liner. This design provides total containment of an 8 kg TNT-equivalent explosive detonation surrounded by 35 kg of inert material, and it is significantly lighter and safer than conventional containers. Testing confirmed that the AT-595 was able to contain the explosion, including the resulting shrapnel and gases. The ISTC-sponsored project concentrates on a spherical ERC design with a rapid-closing door mechanism that contains a 5 kg TNT-equivalent explosion. The explosive containment vessels have potential uses for both safety and security applications, including applications for homeland defense. This paper looks at the technical design, project history, and export and licensing considerations. This research was sponsored in part by the NNSA Office of Dismantlement and Transparency (NA- 241) Warhead and Fissile Material Transparency (WFMT) Program and the NNSA Office of Global Security Engagement and Cooperation (NA-242) Global Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (GIPP) Program, with support from the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).