Myles, Just curious if you ever did any work at the DuPont / Noltex plant in LaPorte ? When with Fluor Daniel, I was Safety Manager there for over two years, then went to another project in Baytown at a Bayer Nitric Acid unit. Your modeling of the tank car loading rack is very good. Cannot count how many times I operate crane while they were removed to repair. Most times it was due to too little inhibitor added to the product and all the bends in the loading arm would gel up and become a solid blockage. What really beats all was when NO inhibitor was added to one tank load and the product began to react and produce heat/pressure. The unfortunate tank car was switched out to the team tracks South of the plant and water filled tank cars were positioned along both sides of the "hot" car. The closest fire monitors were set to stream onto the "hot" car in an attempt to cool the chemical reaction taking place. Well.... around 3 in the morning, approx. 14 hrs after being loaded improperly, she blew. The explosion wiped out the two adjacent water filled cars, took out a lot of track, and one of the nearby high transmission towers along with downing several hundred feet of transmission line. As precaution, the R&H plant and others were notified to switch over to alternate routed power feeds to their plants and averted any other shut downs of additional units. When she did blow, it sent quite a fireball into the air and local news captured it very well for all to see. Certainly bringing back some memories of an occupation and environment that was pretty much considered the "norm" when younger and performing the tasks I did, back then. And, have always liked the fact of my sense of taste and smell returned over time after leaving those environments. But, the excitement and keen sense of awareness you always maintained, believe it or not, I wont say are sometimes missed...... just a smile of reminisce occurs sometimes. It really does have one appreciate the more simple every day events of life, and living with those you cherish/love.
Jesse TCA
