Semtex
- Date
- 1964 · confidence medium
- Place
- Semtín, Pardubice, Czechia
- Credited to
- Stanislav Brebera and Radim Fukátko (VCHZ Synthesia)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A malleable plastic explosive of PETN and RDX with a binder, developed in Czechoslovakia. Its paste is stable, hand-mouldable and gives off almost no detectable vapours.
It was invented in the late 1950s under the name B 1; it was made from 1964 at Semtín, whence the name. The American C-4 explosive is a very similar formula. After 1991 a volatile taggant was added.
What it led to
- civil and military blasting in Eastern Europe
- large-scale exports to Libya and other countries
- international regulation of explosive taggants (Montreal, 1991)