{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.012974051896207584, 'fraction_numerical': 0.009481037924151697, 'mean_word_length': 5.188271604938271, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Educating the Next Generation of Explosives Specialists

Explosives accidents have claimed the lives of more than a thousand people around the world since the turn of the Millennium. Added to the loss of life has been the significant loss of defence capability and infrastructure. Many of the accidents have been caused not by failure of design, but by human failure. Much of the human failure can be attributed to the lack of competencies, skills and adequate training of the people concerned. This paper describes some of the initiatives being taken in the UK and in the European Union to ensure that workers in the explosives community have the skills and competencies required to safely sustain activities involving explosives. It will describe the development and evolution of a range of explosives competencies and the training and qualifications framework being developed to generate and maintain the competencies. Finally, the paper will refer to some of the novel training approaches which are being applied. Explosives Safety Since the turn of the Millennium there have been a number of well publicised explosives accidents around the world. Annex A, taken from reference 1, details the majority of these. One of the characteristics of these accidents is that they frequently have catastrophic consequences. In Lagos, Nigeria an ammunition dump exploded, the explosion created mass panic which subsequently led to the death of nearly 1000 people, most of whom were children. Another explosives accident aboard the Russian submarine led to the loss of 118 sailors, a loss of significant defence capability and serious political destabilisation of the Putin Government. In Holland an explosion involving fireworks destroyed 200 houses and killed 22 people, whilst in France an explosion involving ammonium nitrate destroyed a major industrial facility, killed 30 people and injured around 2000. The consequence of explosives accidents is frequently serious in human, economic and political terms.