2750 Tons of Explosives (and fertilizer) in One Location

[ProfessorGAC]

10. A Couple Answers

1. Sealing it doesn't matter either way.
2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate will release energy nearly identical to smokeless powder, but at nearly 100 times the velocity.
5.5 million pounds of ammonium nitrate will detonate with about the force of 600,000 pounds of TNT. That's a third of a kiloton!
It's a powder, so sealed or not, the energy is still going to blow the building to bits and the shock wave will for nealy a mile.
Could it have been stored in a blast bunker, so if it detonated the wave would go straight up? You bet! That's what they should have done.
2. They didn't have it for agriculture. They confiscated it off a Russian ship in 2014. It was contraband, and wasn't intended for use in Lebanon.
Should it have sat there for 6 years? Obviously not. They weren't storing it properly, the whole time!
Not sure how the fire that set this stuff off got started. But, this stuff should have stored in a structure that cannot burn.
Like a concrete blast bunker, maybe?