Question: What is Quantanium?? In a lore sense regarding its nature as a material. I ventured down this rabbit hole after an Orgmate of mine stumbled across what appears to be a NFPA Diamond with a 9a in the bottom quadrant plastered on the side of a Silo at an in-game refinery. Dealing with Hazmat myself in my IRL job it made me wonder how I would classify Quantanium as a Hazardous Material. Thus begun the rabbit hole. Well, obviously its an explosive... right? This would be my initial thought as well, but I had to be sure. Quantanium is most often transported in a solid, raw, mineral state. I had to check between Explosive or a Flammable Solid that becomes an explosive because its contained in an area where pressure can be built. "A flammable solid is a solid which is readily combustible, or may cause or contribute to fire through friction." Hmm, that doesn't quite seem right. Let's check the definition of explosives. "An explosive substance is a solid or liquid substance (or mixture of substances) which is in itself capable by chemical reaction of producing gas at such a temperature and pressure and at such a speed as to cause damage to the surroundings." Now we're on the right track, but what division is Quantanium? Well that was clear from the first listed division. DIVISION 1.1: "Substances and articles which have a mass explosion hazard. (A mass explosion is one which affect almost the entire load virtually instantaneously.) If you've ever been late to a Quant drop off, you know its near instant when it decides its time to go. So now we can be sure that Quantanium is a Division 1.1 Explosive and should be placarded as such for transport in accordance with U.E.E. 49 CFR § 172.504 - General placarding requirements. Now we get to the REAL question: What even is Quantanium??? Quantanium is described as follows according to the Starcitizen.tools wiki: "Quantanium is a tiny, delicate, highly unstable mineral that can be harvested and refined into quantum fuel. Once mined, Quantanium degrades over time." "Impacts to the transporting ship will also accelerate this degradation." Alright what do we know? Its a Mineral that is unstable, explosive, degrades over time, and shock sensitive. Great! That shouldn't be too tough to classify... ah wait. "Once mined, Quantanium degrades over time." Once MINED?! So the Quantanium is in more-or-less a state of stability until its mined?? Ok, ok, we can try and work backwards from this. Rapid Oxidation? No, Quantanium has this property even if mined from the vacuum of space in an asteroid belt with no oxygen to be found. Physical Shock? While Quantanium does show some properties to be susceptible from shock, the force required to crack the larger rocks Quantanium is found in would definitely be enough to set the material off. Photon Sensitivity? No, that doesn't seem right. Sensitivity to change because it just really like to be left alone? Relatable, but no. This is where I find myself now. I could conceivably come to a conclusion as to how Quantanium should be classified if it wasn't for the fact its relatively stable until mined. A Mineral, Highly Reactive, Explosive, Shock Sensitive, and degrades quickly over time... but will be just fine if you left it alone on Lyria in the first place. Best guess: It should be classified as some sort of Radioactive Explosive Material where neutrons exist suspended within a crystalline structure unable to cause a chain reaction until the crystal structure is disturbed by way of mining operations leading to a release of a massive amount of stored neutrons causing the remaining material to aggressively and quickly degrade releasing a vast amount of energy into the surrounding area. Help, I should be sleeping.