American Pacific Rocket Fuel Plant, Utah
This volatile chemical production complex was built in a remote valley near Cedar City in 1989, following a devastating explosion of the company's plant in Henderson, Nevada in 1988. It is owned by American Pacific Corporation (Ampac), a company based in Las Vegas. The Western Electrochemical (WECCO) division of Ampac, which operates at this plant, is the only North American producer of ammonium perchlorate, an essential oxidizing agent for rockets, including the Space Shuttle, and ICBMs. Before the explosion in Henderson in 1988, WEECO was known as the Pacific Engineering and Production Company (PEPCON), and manufactured perchlorate near the BMI industrial complex in Henderson. In 2014, American Pacific Corporation was purchased by the Miami investment firm H.I.G. Capital.