OSHA Inspection: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC

Issued

Sep 26, 2012

Abate by

Oct 18, 2012

Penalty

Initial $7,000 · Current $7,000

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to the hazard of explosions from a copper exhaust line:      a) Fabrication 4: On or about March 27, 2012, and times prior thereto, employees were exposed to an explosion from a copper exhaust line on an Asher Tool that was incompatible with the anhydrous ammonia (NH3) with which it was used.   Copper piping may become brittle and thinned by the NH3 and eventually plugged by the formation of AN (ammonium nitrate) and TACN (tetramine copper II nitrate). A restriction in the line can cause the internal pressure and friction of the line to increase and detonate the TACN (a highly sensitive explosive from the reaction of the copper line material and NH3) followed by the detonation of the AN. The construction plans for the facility, approved by the employer, called for the required stanless steel piping, but for reasons unknown to the employer, copper piping was utilized.    b) Fabrication 4:  On or about March 27, 2012, and times prior thereto, the dry pump pressure and system operation was not sufficiently monitored for pressure changes and proper operation.  Employees were exposed to an explosion hazard from a copper exhaust line that had become internally restricted by chemical build up inside the line increasing the pressure in the line to over 1600 mbar. The equipment monitoring SCADA system had been non-operational for 2 days and the fault paging system had been out-of-service for the prior two months.