Issue Briefs
Workforce One Pager
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Background
The commercial explosives industry employs more than 15,500 workers throughout the United States and supports just over 60,000 jobs. Commercial explosives have a total economic impact of more than $19 billion to the U.S. economy. Commercial explosives are used in all 50 states and are essential to our modern way of life.
Reduce ATF Background Check Times
Workers in the commercial explosives industry must undergo an ATF background check through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Currently ATF explosives background checks take on average three months to process. This lengthy wait occurs even though in 2023 there were over 28 million total NICS background checks with just over 0.33% accounting for individuals in the commercial explosives industry. IME fully supports employees being properly vetted. However, lengthy processing times can be a deterrent to individuals entering the commercial explosives industry. This creates significant challenges recruiting qualified workers who oftentimes will seek alternative employment due to the delays and uncertainty. In 2023, ATF announced an effort to modernize federal regulations for commercial explosives to better reflect today’s business environment.
Ask: Congress should ensure ATF includes the following as they seek to update their regulations.
- Background checks for employees in the commercial explosives industry should be expedited and have the option to be filed online.
- Employee clearance records should be portable from company to company.
- Long-time employees should have access to a timely relief process should an issue be flagged when undergoing background check renewals.
- Subcontractors, temporary workers, and interns who might be handling explosives should be background checked and cleared as Employee Processors under a company’s federal explosives license.
Incentivize the Workforce of the Future
Despite increased safety, training and recruitment efforts, workforce shortages are acute at every level of the commercial explosives industry from manufacturing to transport to final use.
Ask: Congress should enact legislation to support a future commercial explosives workforce.
- Mining Engineers
- Support H.R. 2685/S. 912, the Mining Schools Act of 2023, legislation which would provide grants to mining schools to recruit and educate future mining engineers.
- Truck Drivers
- Support H.R. 2450, the Strengthening Supply Chains Through Truck Driver Incentives Act of 2023 and H.R.471, the SHIP IT Act, legislation which would provide incentives to attract and retain truck drivers.
TNT One Pager
Our Asks
- Congress should work in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Biden Administration to address the current TNT scarcity and identify ways to reduce barriers to the importation of TNT into the United States. While IME supports and understands the needs of the defense industry, the needs of the commercial explosives industry must not be displaced, and contracts and orders should not be interrupted. This will help ensure vital infrastructure projects and critical mineral development are completed in a timely and cost-effective manner.
- In order to maintain a strong domestic commercial explosives manufacturing industry, Congress should act to ensure that the commercial explosives industry is able to domestically source TNT.
- IME also supports federal funding and incentives for research and development of new, cost -effective, and sustainable high explosives which provide the commercial explosives industry with new tools to meet evolving customer needs and minimize environmental impacts.
What is TNT?
TNT, or 2, 4, 6-trinitrotoluene, is a high explosive. The yellow, odorless substance is solid at room temperature and does not occur in nature. TNT is manufactured by combining toluene with nitric and sulfuric acids.
How is TNT Used?
TNT is widely used by both the commercial explosives industry and the U.S. military. Due to its stability and shelf life, TNT is desirable for numerous applications. Unlike some high explosives, TNT is relatively insensitive and is not prone to detonation without shock (from another explosive or detonator), physical impact, static electricity, or extreme heat.
How does the military use TNT?
TNT is the Army’s most widely used military explosive. TNT is used by the defense industry for various applications, including the manufacture of artillery shells, grenades, and airborne bombs.
How does the commercial explosives industry use TNT?
TNT is an essential ingredient in the manufacturing of commercial explosives products like cast boosters, commonly used in the mining, quarrying, and construction industries. Thanks to innovation in the safety of our products, today’s relatively insensitive blasting agents require the high output power of cast boosters to detonate.
Where does the U.S. Source TNT From?
Since 1986, TNT is no longer manufactured in the United States, leaving our nation highly vulnerable to shortages and solely dependent on foreign sources. The U.S. imports TNT from Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Australia, and India. Other major producers of TNT include China and Russia, however due to current geopolitical conflicts, the U.S. does not currently import TNT from either of these countries.
Why Did We Stop Producing TNT in the U.S.?
TNT was manufactured in the U.S. until 1986, when the Radford Army Ammunition Plant located in Virginia, ceased manufacturing the product because “environmental regulations became increasingly more stringent and costly to implement.”
Environmental Concerns
Production of TNT creates wastewater known as “red water” or “pink water” which, if not properly controlled, can be absorbed into soil leading to adverse health and environmental effects. These potential environmental effects of TNT can be remediated through vacuum distillation, layer melt crystallization, and other proven control technologies.
Why Do We Have a TNT Shortage?
Current geopolitical conflicts have made it extremely difficult to source TNT from many of the countries the U.S. previously relied upon. Both the Army and the commercial explosives industry are experiencing difficulty securing the material. The current shortages compromise the U.S. defense sector and puts in limbo the many infrastructure priorities and projects created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. The commercial explosives industry may not have the necessary tools to complete these projects without TNT and where TNT can be sourced, there will almost certainly be increased costs, leading to higher-cost projects.
Can we produce TNT Domestically?
In September 2023, the Army published a Sources Sought for the Construction and Operation of a TNT facility in the U.S. The proposed facility would produce approximately five million pounds of TNT per year. The construction of the plant was funded through the Ukraine Supplemental in 2024. Currently, the Army is reviewing applications in response to the Sources Sought. However, the construction of this plant is not an immediate solution to the TNT shortage.
Supply Chain One Pager
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Background
A strong domestic commercial explosives manufacturing industry is essential to the economy of the United States. Our products are used for quarrying, mining critical minerals, oil and gas production, renewable energy production, construction, and demolition. Collectively, all of these activities make today’s modern way of life possible. If you use or consume it, explosives make it possible. In order to produce these essential commercial explosive products, manufacturers need access to reliable sources of raw materials and inputs.
High Explosives
High explosives (HMX, RDX, PETN and TNT) are chemicals or mixtures that are manufactured or synthesized in highly controlled processes and are commonly used in the commercial explosives industry. HMX, RDX and TNT are common and critical ingredients in the manufacturing of commercial explosives but are extremely difficult to source domestically.
- HMX and RDX are both single sourced and produced at only one location in the U.S.
- There are no TNT manufacturing plants in the U.S., making us highly dependent on foreign sources. The majority of imports of these products into the U.S. are from Poland, Turkey, China, South Korea, Australia and India. Current geopolitical conflicts have made it extremely difficult to source materials from nearly all these countries.
- PETN is currently produced at three locations in the U.S.
What is HMX used for?
While the U.S. military is the primary consumer of HMX, it is also an ingredient necessary to make commercial explosives products like detonating cord and shaped charges used in industrial applications like oil and gas production, mining, and demolition.
What is RDX used for?
Similar to HMX, the U.S. military is the primary consumer of RDX, also an ingredient necessary to make commercial explosives products commonly used in industrial applications including demolition, mining, oil and gas production, and other industrial activities where a powerful explosive is required.
What is TNT used for?
The U.S. military is also the primary consumer of TNT. However, it is an essential ingredient in the manufacturing of commercial explosives products like cast boosters, commonly used in the mining and quarrying industries.
What is PETN used for?
PETN is commonly used in the manufacturing of detonating cord, shock tube, detonators and cast boosters.
Ammonium Nitrate
The U.S. commercial explosives industry uses ammonium nitrate (AN) in two forms to manufacture blasting agents and explosive products. The first form is a liquid known as ammonium nitrate solution (ANS). The second is solid and is referred to as technical grade ammonium nitrate (TGAN) and has a bead-like shape called a “prill." Today, more than 90 percent of commercial explosives consumed in the United States are ammonium nitrate based.
Ammonium Nitrate is considered an oxidizing agent but can have energetic properties only when combined with certain chemical compounds like fuel oil. By itself, AN is a safe and stable compound that under normal storage conditions is extremely unlikely to detonate. The reason AN is used across the commercial explosives supply chain in such a high volume is that it’s a much more stable compound to use and is a significant safety improvement over the nitroglycerine-based products that were used in the past. Another reason AN is used as a main ingredient in commercial explosives is because the elements that make up its composition are both abundant and affordable. While the current domestic supply of AN is relatively stable, additional regulation on the manufacturing or use of this important material could severely impact the future supply.
What is Ammonium Nitrate use for?
Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO), Ammonium Nitrate Emulsions (ANEs) and water gels and slurries are primarily used in the mining, quarrying and construction industries.
Ask: In order to maintain a strong domestic commercial explosives manufacturing industry, Congress should act to ensure the commercial explosives industry is able to domestically source raw materials and other necessary ingredients including HMX, RDX and TNT, that are essential to the production of commercial explosives products. In addition, Congress should ensure that any legislation or regulation impacting ammonium nitrate must be science-based and should not impact the availability of supply of this important material.
Transportation One Pager
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Background
The commercial explosives industry relies on all modes of transportation including rail, truck, maritime, and air, to move our products safely and securely not just nationwide, but around the world. Transportation-induced disruptions to the commercial explosives industry’s supply chain can lead not only to delays within our industry, but also to significant delays to the many infrastructure projects that rely on commercial explosives. These include roads, railways, runways, tunnel and pipeline construction, energy development and infrastructure, and the mining of critical minerals. Significant delays in any of these projects can lead to increased costs and even potential safety hazards.
Zero-Emission Freight Vehicles
As Congress and the Administration consider policies mandating the shift to zero-emission vehicles (EVs) (both lithium-ion and hydrogen fuel cell), IME is concerned with the potentially hazardous use of EVs to transport Class 1 hazardous materials (explosives) and other materials necessary for blasting.[1] The incompatibility of Class 1 materials and lithium-ion batteries is well-documented in U.S. transportation policy. For example, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) “Lithium Battery Guide for Shippers” specifically states that Class 1 materials cannot be packed in the same outer packaging with lithium-ion batteries.[2] The United Nations (UN) Working Party on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, which IME is an active participant in, has also raised concerns regarding transporting explosives with EVs and is currently examining the feasibility and safety of doing so.[3]
Ask: Congress should direct PHMSA to study the feasibility of safely transporting Class 1 hazardous materials and other materials necessary for blasting, using EVs. Until such research is conducted and it has been proven to be safe, transportation of Class 1 hazardous materials and other materials necessary for blasting must be excluded from any zero-emission policies.
Streamlined Security Screenings
Employees transporting commercial explosives and other goods are required to undergo multiple background checks. These in some cases duplicative checks result in unnecessary fees and present hurdles to these individuals necessary to the transport of goods.
Ask: Support H.R. 5840/S. 3959, the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act, legislation that will reduce duplicative background checks and burdensome fees on essential transportation workers, by allowing valid background checks to be applied to more than one TSA security threat assessment program, specifically the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and HAZMAT Endorsement (HMEs), removing barriers to the transportation industry.
Modernizing ATF Regulations for Commercial Explosives
Download IME's ATF Modernization Fact Sheet
The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 was signed into law more than forty years ago, making the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) the primary regulator for the safe storage, import and sale of commercial explosives. The Safe Explosives Act of 2002, signed into law after September 11th, added additional requirements. However, it has been more than twenty years since a broad review of ATF regulations for commercial explosives has been conducted.
ATF recently announced the Federal Regulatory Modernization Project with the intent of reviewing current federal regulations for commercial explosives to ensure they are still applicable to today’s industry and business environment and update them wherever necessary. The effort is also intended to reduce unnecessary or overly burdensome rules that are no longer necessary due to increased safety and security measures already in place.
As part of the federal regulatory modernization project, IME has provided the following recommendations for ATF’s consideration:
Timely Background Checks and Clearances
All employees who possess, use, or otherwise handle commercial explosives are required to undergo background checks by the ATF. In some instances, the process can take up to six months, creating workflow disruptions in an already challenging labor market.
Our Asks:
- Background checks for employees in the commercial explosives industry should be expedited through the FBI’s NICS database.
- Employee clearance records should be portable from company to company.
- Long-time employees should have access to a timely relief process should an issue be flagged when undergoing background check renewals.
- Currently, subcontractors, temporary workers, and interns who might be handling explosives cannot be vetted under a company’s explosives license. IME believes these workers should be background checked and cleared as Employee Possessors under a company’s federal explosives license.
Modernize Record-Keeping Requirements
IME believes it is important to have accountability of commercial explosives, and we believe modernized record-keeping requirements of inventory will enhance security and improve efficiency.
Our Asks:
- ATF has issued allowances for electronic record-keeping for over a decade on a case-by-case basis. IME believes regulations should be updated to allow for flexibility when companies choose to implement electronic record-keeping of commercial explosives material.
- ATF should accept one set of records for each company rather than separate sets for activities related to import, export, dealing, and use of commercial explosives inventory. This would greatly improve efficiency while maintaining a high level of security of inventory.
Implement the Institute of Makers of Explosives Safety Analysis for Risk (IMESAFR)
The American Table of Distances (ATD) was developed by IME over a century ago to ensure public safety around the storage of commercial explosives. During this time, practices and new explosives have greatly improved safety. In 2004, IME worked with APT Research to develop IMESAFR, a quantitative risk assessment tool (QRA), to supplement the ATD. This software models risk scenarios to the workforce and the public from commercial explosives facilities and operations.
- IME recommends that ATF formally adopt IMESAFR as an additional option for businesses to reduce risk and further safeguard the workforce and the public.
DHS/ATF: Duplicative Regulation of Commercial Explosives
Download IME's CFATS One Pager
Background:
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program aims to secure high-risk chemical facilities against terrorism by requiring them to assess and report security risks and vulnerabilities, develop security plans, and comply with security measures. However, these requirements are duplicative of existing commercial explosives regulations enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), whose mission is, “preventing terrorism, reducing violent crime involving the criminal misuse of explosives, and protecting the public by enforcing laws and regulations”.
Facts:
- Thefts of explosives have seen no significant reduction following CFATS implementation in 2007.
- A 2021 GAO report, entitled Chemical Security: Overlapping Programs Could Better Collaborate to Share Information and Identify Potential Security Gaps found the majority of CFATS requirements for commercial explosives directly overlap with pre-existing ATF regulations.
- In a 2021 Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) entitled Removal of Certain Explosive Chemicals From the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards DHS indicated “we believe that these regulations may be unnecessarily burdensome for facilities that are already subject to security regulations for the same chemicals by another Federal agency, ATF.” Unfortunately, this ANPRM has yet to be formalized into a rulemaking.
- While developing it’s Risk Management Plan regulations, the EPA issued a final rule removing Division 1.1 explosives from its list of regulated substances for accidental release prevention concluding that “. . . current [ATF and other] regulations and current and contemplated industry practices promote safety and accident prevention in storage, handling, transportation, and use of explosives, making them adequate for EPA's purposes.”
Our Position:
The commercial explosives industry has been effectively regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) since implementation of the Safe Explosives Act of 1970. All available government data shows that there has been no significant reduction in thefts of commercial explosives since implementation of the CFATS program.
Our Ask:
Commercial explosives should be removed from the CFATS program’s Appendix A: Chemicals of Interest list by amending the legislation to include the following language “The Secretary may not designate any explosive material subject to regulation by the Department of Justice under chapter 40 of title 18, United States Code, or by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives under part 555 of title 27, Code of Federal Regulations, as a chemical of interest under Appendix A to part 27 of title 6, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto”.
