PA. Natural Gas is being liquified in bulk for overseas shipment - could it be a terrorist target???

[JPZenger]

http://www.cfr.org/natural-gas/liquefied-natural-gas-potential-terrorist-target/p9810

Natural gas prices are much higher overseas than in the US, which is causing huge investments in facilities across the US to liquify natural gas so it can be shipped in LNG tanker ships. The nearest facility under construction is southeast of Baltimore along the Chesapeake, but there are also multiple facilities proposed along the Gulf Coast.

Excerpt:

"Natural gas is at least 90 percent methane, which is combustible. Though in its liquid state natural gas is not explosive, spilled LNG will quickly evaporate, forming a vapor cloud, which if ignited can be very dangerous. Yet the likelihood of this happening is somewhat remote: In order to for a vapor cloud to combust the gas-to-air mixture must be within the narrow window of 5 percent to 15 percent. Furthermore, the vapor is lighter than air, and in the absence of an ignition source, it will simply rise and dissipate. Under windy conditions, which frequently exist on the waters where LNG tankers sail, the likelihood of such a cloud forming is further lessened.

Nevertheless, should one of these vapor clouds catch fire, the results could be catastrophic, says James Fay, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. Describing one scenario, he says that a hole in an LNG tanker could result in liquid leaking out of the storage vessel faster than it would burn off, resulting in an expanding "pool fire." A 2004 study by the Sandia National Laboratory, suggests that such a fire would be hot enough to melt steel at distances of 1,200 feet, and could result in second-degree burns on exposed skin a mile away. "This would be bigger than any industrial fire with which we have experience," Fay says.

"There's no way to put out that kind of fire." A pool fire will burn until all its fuel is gone, which takes five to eight minutes, but it could ignite a rash of secondary fires on such a large scale that they may cause more damage than the initial blaze."