Inside the operations building at the Nammo Talley plant in southern Lowndes County, assembly bays are surrounded on three sides with one-foot-thick concrete walls. Behind each bay are hinged blowout walls.
“The concrete walls would take the pressure of the event out this wall. The wall would flip out and would not let the incident propagate to the next work area,” said plant manager Jim Mullis.
What Mullis means when he says “event” or “incident” is a huge, violent explosion.
Nammo Talley has more safety checks in place than the average manufacturing plant because it manufactures bombs. Specifically, the explosive, rocket-propelled rounds used by the U.S. military to blow up tanks and bunkers. Thus, an “event” has the potential to kill all 16 employees in the plant.
That”s why safety comes first at Nammo.
“(Priority) No. 1 is safety,” said Mullis. “Right behind safety is quality. Then comes production.”
And production at Nammo Talley is, well, booming. Nammo”s lines are about to expand. In addition to manufacturing rounds, the plant will begin assembling the Marine Corps” M-72 LAW (Light Anti-tank Weapon) and BDM (Bunker Defeat Munition) firing systems in January.
No additional employees are expected to be hired at this time, but Mullis says Nammo and the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link are exploring options for expansion on the 640-acre site.
”A few extra hazards”
The Lowndes County operation is part of the Nammo Group, a global company owned by investors in Finland and Norway. The company, with 1,900 employees worldwide, develops all types of propulsion systems, from escape hatches on aircraft to missiles.
Walking up to the Lowndes operations building at Nammo, it”s quickly evident safety means more than plastic goggles, although they wear those, too.
A 30-foot wooden pole on either side of the building holds a lighting rod. A steel cable spans the distance between them.
Nammo isn”t taking the chance of leaving the building susceptible to lightning. Nor is it risking the possibility of the slightest electrical charge near its explosives. That”s why each employee is issued a pair of special shoes which drain static electricity.
In the operations building”s locker room, employees step on a platform that resembles a bathroom scale to measure their static charge. If they”re carrying a charge, they must take steps to lose it before entering.
Inside the building, a metal band connected to a grounding loop runs throughout the entire complex. Tables are grounded. Sitting employees attach a grounding wire to their wrists. A special air conditioning unit can pump moisture into the air to reduce static. Machines are air-powered rather than electric. Light fixtures are fitted with ultra-strong covers in case a bulb blows.
Everything is geared toward eliminating stray electric charges. The plant, built in 2006, is as bomb-proof as possible. But just in case, the 6,000-square-foot building was built with 10 exits.
The gravity of the risk is not lost on Nammo”s 16 employees, each of whom are cross-trained to perform every job.
“It”s very interesting. But we”ve gone through a lot of training to be safe with all electro-static stuff,” said Stephen Smith, who has been with the company since the Lowndes facility opened.
“The first couple of weeks we were all a little skittish about being around it. You get used to it. After a while it”s sort of like any other job, except for a few extra hazards.”
Hazards like explosives designed to disable tanks. Hazards like an on-site underground bunker where finished rounds are stockpiled until they”re shipped out. Hazards which could make for some tense employees in a less-controlled atmosphere.
“I wouldn”t describe it as tension as much as a respect for what could happen,” said Smith.
”Out of frag distance”
The Nammo site actually features three buildings: The operations building, the bunker and the assembly building at the entrance of the property.
Standing in the transportation bay behind the assembly building, where all employees move as a group each day from one facility to the other on passenger carts, Mullis makes a sobering observation looking toward the operations building.
“If that building goes off, we”re out of frag distance,” he said.
The facility is also intentionally distanced from roadways.
The availability of land is one of several reasons Nammo chose Lowndes County over Iuka in 2006 while scouting potential sites. Mullis credits the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link with attracting the manufacturer.
East Mississippi Community College”s workforce training program also played a huge part. EMCC has provided training from soldering to blueprint reading.
That knowledge is essential to test and assemble products precisely down to one-thousandth of an inch.
Employees must hold a high school diploma and test at a certain level before being hired, but Nammo offers its employees the chance to pursue a degree free of charge.
Mullis says that”s just one way the company fosters loyalty and cohesion in its employees. Everyone also breaks and eats lunch together.
“We”re all pretty close. And I”m not a sit-behind-the-desk plant manager. I”m working on the lines as well,” he said.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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