The Israeli Explosives Safety Center

National Expertise in Explosives Safety, Risk Assessment, and Q-D Planning

The Israeli Explosives Safety Center (IESC) is Israel’s national authority for explosives safety, Q-D analysis, and site planning for facilities handling energetic materials.
Established by government mandate, the IESC serves as the first accredited national laboratory dedicated to ensuring safe handling, storage, and risk management of explosives across defense and civilian sectors.

Certified by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), the IESC provides expert services to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel Air Force, Home Front Command, and various defense industries and governmental bodies.

The center offers professional training programs, consulting, and engineering support for organizations, companies, and authorities engaged in the use, storage, and transport of explosives, helping them meet regulatory standards and safety protocols.

A certified international Quantity-Distance (Q-D) Laboratory

The IESC was established under the auspices of the Israeli government regulator as the first laboratory for site planning and safety requirements compliance. The IESC was assessed by the Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority (ISRAC) and is certified by the international ILAC organization to perform site plan compliance tests with reference to Q-D requirements, based on the specifications of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior’s Business licensing authority for defense oriented plants.

Expertise and Experience

The IESC’s professional staff comprises highly qualified experts with more than 25 years of experience in the various aspects explosives safety, including:

Examining the existing explosives safety situation according to permissible exposure levels, based on defined safety criteria.
Writing safety manuals and publishing articles about explosives safety issues.
Participating in international working groups (NATO), and cooperating with the DDESB.
Guiding and training professionals in the field: safety officers, ammunition inspectors, ammunition officers (ESO), commander courses, professional conferences, fire and police departments.
Conducting trials and studies on AE: Studying risk effects (such as classification), and providing protection solutions (effectiveness verified in experiments and simulations).
Site planning and approving storage facilities, developing methods to minimize the risks arising from a variety of accident scenarios.
Developing and approving tailor-made AE storage solutions that comply with safety requirements and support effective operations.
Keeping up to date on international explosives safety manuals and standards.
Investigating accidents that involve explosives.

Site planning & Risk analysis

The potential harm resulting from explosions is determined by the separation/quantity distance between potential explosion sites (PES) and exposed sites (ES), the ability of the PES to suppress the effects of the explosive event (blast overpressure, fragments and debris, fireball, etc.) and the ability of the ES to resist these effects. Planning the proper location and the type of construction of AE facilities and of the surrounding facilities/objects exposed to AE facilities are the primary considerations taken into account to ensure safety according to permissible exposure levels.
The IESC prepares a complete site plan, customized to meet the specific needs of each client, including, among others:

Classifications and definitions of the facilities and objects at the site and in the surrounding area.
Classification of the explosives, determining the risks in case of an explosive event.
Inspection and examination of work involving explosives (handling, storage, transport, manufacturing, etc.).
Determination of quantity and separation distances for permissible exposures.
Calculation of the storage potential or the net explosives weight (NEW) according to hazard and compatibility groups, and organization of the storage site.
Publication of a site plan protocol detailing findings and recommendations.

Hazard classification of AE

UN regulations define AE as Class 1, which is divided into Hazard Divisions (HD), indicating the types of hazards anticipated in the event of an accident involving a specific quantity of ammunition. Class 1 is further divided into Compatibility Groups (CG), designed to minimize the risk of storing together items that will either increase the risk of an accident, or, for a given quantity, the magnitude of the effects of such an accident.
Determining the correct Classification of Hazard Divisionsis a significant datum of the explosive article/substance, which allows to accurately specify the type of hazards anticipated in case of an accident involving explosives, and to understand their implications.
The HD of a particular explosive or type of ammunition are determined by its performance and test results, according to the Manual of Tests and Criteriaof the UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods.
The IESC performs the Hazard Classification tests (based on UN tests) for the determination of the HD and the exact amount of NEW according to the test results - taking into account the contribution of the propellant or pyrotechnic, which allow reducing the quantity distances from the explosives facility (NEWQD). This enables the IESC to prepare an optimal storage plan, minimizing the risk to personnel, equipment and assets, while meeting mission and operational requirements and fully complying with standards and procedures.

Training

The IESC offers a variety of explosives safety courses, workshops and seminars tailored to meet customer requirements and diverse trainee populations: representatives of the military bodies and units, governmental agencies and defense industries.
The most popular course is the basic explosive safety course (duration: 3 days), which covers all the explosives safety issues and includes lectures of experts from the academia and from governmental ministries and agencies. The lectures and presentations thoroughly cover all aspects of explosive safety, including the international explosives safety standards and manuals of countries around the globe (as relevant to specific trainee groups), and the MOD explosives safety manual.
Additionally, the course includes practical exercises of site planning and Q-D’s calculations, with literature provided by the IESC.
The basic course is recognized by the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and provides graduates with professional tools that enrich their knowledge and increase organizational awareness to explosives safety, and the implementation of safety procedures by those responsible for handling and storing explosives.
The curriculum of the basic explosives safety course includes:

Introduction to explosives safety
Safety standards and manuals
Hazard, Compatibility and Sensitivity of explosives – classification and rules
Risks and effects of an explosive event, permissible exposures
Definition and determination of facilities and objects
Quantity-Distance calculations
Site planning
Introduction to underground storage
Accidents – prevention and reporting

The IESC customizes explosives safety training programs to best meet the needs of each client, including classroom exercises and demonstrations in the field.

Storage solutions

IESC’s experts provide consulting and engineering solutions for all populations involved in explosives safety, to ensure safety at AE storage sites.
The IESC has a bank of solutions for cases where safety requirements cannot be met due to insufficient quantity-distances. These proven solutions mitigate the effects of accidental blasts, as they allow permissible exposure for the blast wave, fragments and debris.
IESC has provided storage solutions to a variety of clients, including military and governmental agencies (the Israeli Home Front Command, Israel Defense Forces, Israel Air Force, Israeli Police and more), defense industries and civil organizations that handle explosives.