PREVAIL

PRecursors of ExplosiVes: Additives to Inhibit their use including Liquids

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Homemade explosives (HMEs) are easy to make from readily available materials used for legitimate purposes in everyday life. This availability attracts terrorists to manufacture and use homemade explosives since military and commercial explosives are harder to come by. Two approaches to improve this situation exists. 1) Prohibit or limit the accessibility of these precursor chemicals 2) Use science to solve this problem by making it harder for potential terrorists to make HMEs or by facilitating the detection of these. PREVAIL will address these scientific challenges by a novel approach. The PREVAIL concept and objectives are to prevent the use of hydrogen peroxide (HP) and acetone as precursors to homemade explosives by the development of a series of novel inhibitors, and to ensure that the detection of ammonium nitrate (AN) based devices is facilitated by adding markers tailored to a very sensitive detection system. These objectives must be met without obstructing the legitimate use or causing any adverse effects on the environment or people’s health. The PREVAIL project main activities are development and testing of markers for the inhibition of TATP production and for the concentration of HP by boiling off water (as was done for the London bombings) as well as development of novel markers for easy detection of illicit use of fertilizers. The final outcome of the PREVAIL project are inhibitors for illicit production of TATP and HP based explosives as well as novel marker/detector systems for easy detection of AN based bombs. The PREVAIL project will work together with the chemical manufacturing industry in order to achieve early industrial acceptance of the research. The PREVAIL consortium consists of four research institutes (FOI, TNO,CEA, WIHiE), two chemical industries representing the End Users (Yara, Arkema), three SMEs (Inscentinel, KCEM, SECRAB) and one university (Technion).'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Common household chemicals and fertilisers form the basis of deadly explosives used by terrorists around the world. An innovative programme will help inhibit production and enhance detection, thus saving countless lives.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Terrorists can produce homemade explosives (HMEs) easily, using readily available household products or fertilisers. The EU-funded 'Precursors of explosives: Additives to inhibit their use including liquids' (Prevail) project, the first of its kind, addresses this issue by developing inhibitors of explosives production from some common starting ingredients as well as markers to enable fertiliser-based explosives detection.

The first area of research is focused on inhibiting the production of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and of concentrated HP. TATP is a terrorist explosive used by suicide bombers and the so-called shoe bomber among others. Scientists now have candidate substances that chemically inhibitthe production of TATP and concentrated HP when added to the precursors.

The second area of research is devoted to developing potential markers to enable detection of the illicit use of fertilisers. Candidates have been identified and two technologies selected to facilitate detection of currently non-detectable fertiliser based HMEs.

A fruitful cooperation with the industry has led to knowledge and materials exchange. In particular, coatings supplied by the fertiliser industry are now being tested with Prevail's detector technologies. Continued industrial cooperation and support is evidenced by a commitment to incorporate markers into future fertilisers.

The truly innovative Prevail project promises to address the growing threat to global security caused by HMEs. Technology to inhibit explosives production and enhance illicit explosives detection will with no doubt save countless lives.