In response to the rising concern of the American public over illegal bombings, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms asked the National Research Council to examine possible mechanisms for reducing this threat. The committee examined four approaches to reducing the bombing threat: addition of detection markers to explosives for pre-blast detection, addition of identification taggants to explosives for post-blast identification of bombers, possible means to render common explosive materials inert, and placing controls on explosives and their precursors. The book makes several recommendations to reduce the number of criminal bombings in this country.
- Front Matter
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Executive Summary
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Improving the Capability to Detect Explosives
- 3 Taggants for Preblast and Postblast Identification of Explosives
- 4 Rendering Explosive Materials Inert
- 5 Limiting Criminal Access to Explosives and Precursor Chemicals
- Bibliography
- A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
- B Statement of Task
- C Committee Meetings
- D Summary of Presentations and Materials from Marker and Taggant Vendors
- E Summary of Presentations and Materials from Nonfederal Stakeholders
- F Summary of European Site Visit
- G An Analysis of the Legal Issues Attendant to the Marking, Inerting, or Regulation of Explosive Materials
- H Test to Evaluate Detonability
- I Laboratories Capable of Testing
- J Probabilistic Aspects of Taggant Recovery
- K Criteria for Ranking Common Explosive Chemicals
- L “Be Aware for America” Survey
- M Components of Explosive Systems
- N
Glossary
- O Acronyms and Abbreviations