30-ton shipment of explosive chemicals vanishes during rail transport from Wyoming to California
A 30-ton shipment of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make both fertilizer and explosives, disappeared en route from Wyoming to California. The railcar loaded with 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate from explosives company Dyno Nobel left Cheyenne, Wyoming, on April 12, but two weeks after leaving Cheyenne, the railcar arrived at a rail stop in the Mojave Desert where it was found to be empty. Officials are investigating the disappearance, and Dyno Nobel said that it thought the chemical, which was in pellet form, fell from the covered hopper car it was transported on.
