- Article says 'mishandling'.
- Shipment was in two shiploads from China.
- article also says the fuel type was 'sodium perchlorate'-based.
Thoughts overall on what factors contributed? Is sodium perchlorate super volatile?
Edit: Wikipedia says that sodium perchlorate mixtures used in rockets and fireworks are not shock-sensitive and do not spontaneously detonate.
It's a precursor to Ammonium perchlorate, which is the preferred format for solid fuel rocket motors. It would have been converted in a relatively simple chemical processing plant.
It was purchased from a Chinese chemical company in its precursor because it's not a weapons grade chemical, it can be used for many things. We all know what it was going to be used for, and who would have used it.
That makes more sense, since ammonium perchlorate can be shock-sensitive and reacts with various chemicals.
So it's possible this happened while/after synthesizing the sodium perchlorate into ammonium perchlorate.
Edit: I am maybe jumping the gun here, I'm not sure at all whether this was being synthesized at time of explosion.
Act 5: Iranian government denies the explosion was due to the fuel
