Mr Fitzgibbon toured Orica's Kooragang Island plant on Thursday in response to concerns about its safety following a devastating ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut earlier this month.

The shadow agriculture spokesman emerged satisfied about the plant's safety and also argued that the facility was essential to the Hunter's economy.

"People need to make their own decisions about the safety of the plant," Mr Fitzgibbon, who toured the plant with NSW Senator Deborah O'Neill, said.

"My mother lives about a kilometre from here as the crow flies and I leave the plant not having any concerns about my mum and therefore I'm pretty relaxed about the safety of the community more generally.

"One of the things that needs to be considered here is if the plant was forced to be moved elsewhere then we probably wouldn't have a plant....we would be importing the same product and probably stockpiling it here at the Port of Newcastle. In fact, the turnover would be slower and we would be storing more ammonium nitrate for longer periods here at the port."

Meanwhile, an online petition calling for Orica's ammonium nitrate store to be relocated, possibly to a mine void in the Upper Hunter, had attracted 14,009 signatures last night.

Stockton Community Action Group member Keith Craig said the surrounding community was becoming increasingly intolerant of the Orcia's ammonium nitrate store.

He said 1500 emails expressing concern about ammonium nitrate had been sent to Orica following the Beirut explosion.

"If Joel is interested in the economy of Newcastle and NSW and the coal industry then he should be right behind moving the stockpiles of ammonium nitrate as a catastrophic explosion would not only decimate Newcastle and kill and injure people it would decimate the Newcastle and NSW economies, shut down the port for decades and close down coal industry exports. The NSW Government would lose billions of dollars in royalties," Mr Craig said.

"Plus Orica would be bankrupt so it makes sense for everyone to have the ammonium nitrate stockpiles removed. The answer is to build a purpose designed safe and high security storage well away from communities."

As part of its argument for relocating the facility the group has highlighted a 2013 code of practice document prepared by the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum regarding the safe storage of solid ammonium nitrate. It shows the recommended distance from a store of 500 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (a fraction of the amount stored on Kooragang Island) and houses is 890 metres.

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The state government confirmed this week that the Kooragang Island ammonium nitrate storage facility was one of 126 storage sites around the state.

The government refused to provide the list of sites to the Newcastle Herald.

The sites, some of which hold more than the 6000-12000 tonnes held at Kooragang Island, are controlled by a complex regulatory framework involving the Department of Planning and Environment, Safework NSW, the Environment Protection Authority, NSW Police and Fire and Rescue NSW.

Orica's Kooragang Island ammonium nitrate facility was established in the late 1960s under a radically different planning framework than exists today.

A NSW Department of Planning and Environment spokeswoman said the legislation governing establishment of hazardous facilities in the state had not changed since the early 1990s.

"NSW has one of the strictest assessment and regulatory systems in the world for managing ammonium nitrate storage facilities," she said.

"These facilities must comply with international best practice and are subject to rigorous assessment, regulation and oversight by way of a whole of government approach."

A SafeWork NSW spokesman said the agency conducted periodic spot checks at ammonium nitrate storages via its post licence verification programs, throughout the licence term.

"Environment protection licences for these facilities also include strict conditions to manage risks to the environment and human health, including regular inspections of all licensed premises to ensure compliance with licence conditions," he said.

Newcastle City Police District Commander, Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey said police conducted regular patrols of multiple facilities across the district, including Kooragang Island, and liaised with agencies involved in the transport and storage of ammonium nitrate.

About 200 people are directly employed or work as contractors at Orica's Kooragang site.

The plant has not had a safety incident involving ammonium nitrate in its 51 year history.

But explosives expert Tony Richards, who managed and designed blasting operations for Orica and BHP, previously told the Herald any risk was unacceptable, particularly near an urban area.

''It doesn't matter how small the risk is, the consequences are catastrophic when you are dealing with something that can turn solid iron mountains into mounds of rubble,'' he said.

He estimated an ammonium nitrate explosion on Kooragang Island could cause major damage as far away as Charlestown.

"I have often said that if Kooragang Island goes up the people in Sydney will hear it and say 'what's that?' The answer will be it used to be Newcastle."

Mr Fitzgibbon, a former Defence Minister, said he was satisfied the plant would not pose an unacceptable risk in the event of an emergency on Kooragang Island or as a possible target for terrorism.

"There is risk in driving on the road, cycling or jumping on a train," he said.

"We can't run our lives or run the economy on zero risk, but this product is stored in a non-flammable environment.

"There's no wood, for example, that would change it from being an inert product; it would take an intense heat source to ignite or burn the product. So it seems to me the risk is very, very low."

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