What it’s like to have a 14″ NH3 pipe suffer a 24″ long stress fracture on your roof

UPDATED 2/16/2021 with OSHA Case File

A couple of KEY POINTS in this EMA’s report out to the County Supervisors:

1. Two weeks before this incident the County had conducted a drill at another NH3 facility that involved a rooftop NH3 leak (PREPAREDNESS)
2. The release came from a 14″ diameter suction line on the roof of the facility.  The pipe failure is said to have been caused by a “stress fracture” that was 2′ long, along this 14″ pipe on the roof.
3. It is stated that this ruptured pipe contained around 48,000 pounds of ammonia (NOTE: the process is reported to hold ~64K pounds per the RMP, so we are not sure where this 48K number comes from.  Here is a link to the facility’s RMPs – not sure which of the two facilities in the town this incident occurred – seems to be the larger one based on media video footage from the scene:  CLICK HERE for the RMP
   1. The NRC report states:  CALLER IS REPORTING A FACILITY AMMONIA SUCTION PIPE CRACKED, RESULTING IN A RELEASE OF ANHYDROUS AMMONIA.
   2. The NRC report does not provide the amount released and has not been updated to reflect this as of this posting. 
   3. http://www.nrc.uscg.mil/