Bangalore: Terrorists can make an explosive out of ammonium nitrate, a commonly used fertiliser, according to a former defence scientist and explosives expert.
Saboteurs can also make a liquid explosive from the same ingredients that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) uses to make rocket propellant.
"Mixing the ammonium nitrate fertiliser with diesel oil makes it an explosive," said former director of the Armament Research and Development Establishment in Pune, Haridwar Singh.
Commercial grade ammonium nitrate is enough to make a crude bomb that has the consistency of a gel that can be hidden in a toothpaste tube, he said.
The liquid propellant used in rockets is also a potential candidate for liquid explosive.
"A terrorist need not steal it from ISRO," said a key figure in the development of ISRO's liquid fuelled rocket engines in the 1980s, Nambi Narayanan.
"You can buy its ingredients — nitric acid and uranyl dimethyl hydrazine – from the market," Narayanan said.
ISRO's technology for making both solid and liquid propellants has been licensed out to companies.
The ingredients are called "hypergolic" as they react only when mixed.
Inside a rocket engine, the two are kept in separate tanks and mixing releases gases whose expansion through the nozzle pushes the rocket.
A terrorist can set off an explosion by allowing the mixing to take place in a sealed container from which the gases cannot escape, said Narayanan.
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