Before construction began on Fire Point’s solid rocket propellant plant in Denmark, a wide range of safety and environmental requirements was analyzed and taken into account, including, in particular, the impact on the population of worms living in the construction area. Vyacheslav Bondarchuk, CEO of Rocket Technology, a subsidiary of Fire Point, told UNN about this.
According to Bondarchuk, Denmark has a wide range of regulatory requirements. The construction of this particular plant attracted especially close scrutiny because it is a chemical production facility requiring an exceptionally high level of protection and compliance with safety measures.
Moreover, Bondarchuk said, about 20 years ago an explosion occurred at a pyrotechnics plant in Denmark, resulting in deaths. The memory of this tragedy makes the Danes particularly meticulous about launching such production facilities.
We took fuel samples to laboratories in Sweden and other laboratories for analysis. Hundreds of PhDs worked on this to properly analyze the risks and understand what would happen in the event of sabotage, a fire, or anything else, as well as the potential consequences for people and nature. Only after taking all these potential risks into account were we able to obtain confirmation of the product’s classification in March this year
Vyacheslav Bondarchuk
Between March and June this year, the plant’s design was developed and approved by the Danish authorities in mid-July. Construction began immediately afterward.
The walls are 90 centimeters thick, and there are many different measures designed to provide protection in the event of an incident, whether internal — someone does something carelessly — or external, such as a Russian attack
The company also took the environmental impact of the construction process into account. As Bondarchuk explained, a rare species of worm lives in the area where the plant is being built, and driving foundation piles could cause the worms to die from the stress.
We changed the design. And we are using impact-free technology for the foundation so as not to harm the population of these worms
Another aspect is the handling of production waste. Denmark’s requirements in this area are very stringent.
The most difficult thing was obtaining a permit called "waste management." It concerns the handling of industrial waste and residues, such as residues of the same solid propellant left in a mixer. In mass production, this amounts to about 5 kilograms per day. To obtain this permit, I had to involve three research institutes and take into account all the details of how to separate it into fractions so that the residues would not enter the soil, catch fire, explode, release hydrochloric acid vapors into the air and so on. We developed a very complex chemical process. We involved French and American specialists who have experience with such processes. As a result, we developed waste management that is safe for the Danish environment. Only after that did we receive the final permit
According to him, the process itself involves separating the solid rocket propellant into two safe fractions. After that, two-thirds of this waste is reused in the production process, while one-third is safely disposed of.
We remind you
As UNN reported, Fire Point’s solid rocket propellant plant is being built in the Danish city of Vojens in the south of the country. FP-7 and FP-7.x rockets and boosters for Flamingo will be filled there. This is the first case within NATO in which a member state has allowed a Ukrainian defense company to establish a production site on its territory.
According to Fire Point CEO and CTO Iryna Terekh, the plant’s total area will exceed 120,000 sq. m, while its capacity will range from 800 to more than 4,100 missiles per year, depending on demand. The construction process required a review of the regulatory standards and expert assessment procedures for the construction of such large-scale facilities. In addition, the Danish authorities removed more than 20 legislative barriers overall.
During the war in Ukraine, the plant will operate to meet the needs of our Defense Forces; subsequently, it is planned that the fuel will also be supplied to European partners.
Photo: Andrii Khodkov, UNN photographer