A bomb in the classrooms: the tedax remove an explosive more powerful than dynamite from the laboratories

“This morning I had in my hands five small bottles that we took from Madrid institutes,” says a tedax (technician specializing in the deactivation of explosive devices) from the Civil Guard. According to what the captain of this unit, Salvador Serrano, tells ABC, a total of 26 kilos of this reagent 200 educational centers throughout Spain. Taking into account that each small canister contains between 20 and 50 grams of the explosive substance, the tedax would have deactivated more than 500 potential bombs that have been collecting dust for years in school closets.

In the Community of Madrid, the laboratories of several centers have been intervening for two weeks to, through a controlled detonationdestroy this chemical compound. But boats would also have been eliminated in Santander, León, Palencia, Guadalajara, Ávila, Tenerife, Cáceres, Orense and Pontevedra. The Gedex (Explosives Disposal Specialist Group) has stolen it from the laboratories of the University of Burgosthe only one they have accessed at the moment. According to Captain Serrano, “this operation is going to be long, it will be like deactivating the bombs that were left after ’39.”

Saúl Vallejo, who has a doctorate in Chemistry and directs the Polymers group at the aforementioned Castilian university, explains that this substance can be used as a reagent for a million laboratory experiments. This compound, he says, is dangerous when driven dryso manufacturers have always packaged it in containers with a 20% water. Its chemical structure is very similar to that of TNT, the explosive by which it was replaced at the end of the 20th century.

In fact, picric acid is what is known as a primary explosive. That is, a much more sensitive compound than TNT, more “damn”in the words of Vallejo, because if it does not remain in good conservation conditions it loses water and crystallizes. Above all, it should be kept away from heat sources and metals as this is when it can cause an explosion.

A ‘kit’ of material for laboratories

According to what several Civil Guard commands have reported to ABC, 30 years of educational centers secondary school received a ‘kit’ of chemical compounds as part of the laboratory supplies, among which was picric acid. This delivery coincided in time with the end of the use of this substance as an explosive in the weapons industry, as TNT was a less sensitive and “safer” explosive.

Three decades later, the picric acid would have crystallized, disappearing from the containers the 20% of water that ensures that it does not explode when shaken or when coming into contact with metals or a heat source. The tedax that have already intervened in several Spanish institutes point out, in this sense, that These containers aren’t even being opened. to avoid potential explosion risks.

How do I jump the hare? A chemistry teacher and a specialized company

But how did the hare jump? The Gedex of the Pontevedra Civil Guard was the first to report on November 5 that a total of 26 incidents in Pontevedra and 13 in Orense collection of picric acid in the last year.

As this newspaper has learned, it was a Galician professor of Chemistry who informed the Civil Guard that they kept authentic time bombs in his laboratory.

Several sources that ABC has contacted affirm that, normally, the removal of expired or poorly preserved chemical products is carried out by specialized private companies. One of them, upon encountering several units of picric acid, informed the management of the educational center that the person who had to proceed with its removal was a tedax, as it was a potentially explosive material. As the Civil Guard assures ABC, in no case was it an accident during school hours that caused alarm throughout Spain.

The captain of the Explosives Disposal and Defense Service clarifies that he did not want to make too much noise on social networks by launching an alarm, for fear that some student could “in bad faith” cause an accident if he tried to locate the compound that, according to official sources, had stopped being used in recent years.

However, a teacher from a public institute in Valladolid, who prefers to remain anonymous, acknowledges to ABC that she has witnessed how picric acid had been used on some occasions as a reagent. In any case, this teacher confesses that the teachers of several provinces of Castilla y León sees “excessive” the intervention of tedax in educational centers. This newspaper has asked Anpe, the main union of public education teachers and, at the national level, they claim to have no knowledge of the operation that is being carried out throughout Spain.