WASHINGTON - As a former employee of the California company that made MX and Minuteman missiles, Casper businessman John Wickman knows a thing or two about what is dangerous.

He and others who are involved in the hobby rocket industry say that these rockets and the small amount of fuel that they contain should be removed from the Homeland Security Act's wide-ranging list of dangerous substances.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., is working on legislation that would exempt the hobby rocket industry from the law that was passed last year.

The bill requires the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to monitor the purchase and transfer of "any chemical mixture or device whose primary or common purpose is to function by explosion."

The ATF has interpreted this to include ammonium perchlorate composite propellant, the fuel that is used in both commercial and hobby rockets. Wickman, who was an engineer with Sacramento-based Aerojet from 1974 to 1985, said that the small quantities of the chemical that are in hobby rockets do not threaten national safety.

"It is safer than gasoline," Wickman said. "You can't make a bomb out of it. Rocket motors are not designed to explode."

Under this regulation, people who build and launch hobby rockets will have to get permits from the ATF to purchase rocket motors and to transport them to the location where they will be launched. They will also have to undergo extensive background checks that could take at least two months to complete and maintain records that can be inspected by the ATF.

"Since these records are primarily kept in the permit holder's home, it subjects the hobbyist's home to possible ATF visits," Enzi wrote in a letter to Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, the top Democrat on the Government Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Homeland Security Act. "The response by Americans to these new restrictions will disengage them from the hobby of rocketry, possibly destroying many small businesses and educational hands-on rocketry programs."

Enzi has also sent a letter to ATF director Bradley Buckles in which he asks that rocket propellant be classified as a "nonexplosive."

ATF spokesman Tom Hill said, "We are aware of the issue and have it under consideration."

Wickman says that it should not require too much consideration.

"There is no real threat to anybody." Wickman said. "It's kind of a joke. This was an unintended side effect of the law. I don't believe Congress meant to outlaw the hobby."

If an exemption is not put in place before the regulation takes effect on May 24, Wickman and others in the hobby rocket industry will not be laughing.

"Many people are saying if there is no relief they will get out of the business," Wickman said. "They don't want the ATF in their shorts."

Wickman's company, Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion, is known for its work on a space vehicle, the SHARP-Slender Hypervelocity Aerothermodynamic Research Probe-, but also sells hobby rocket body tubes and hobby rocket books and videos.

Wickman started the hobby rocket subdivision of the business, CP Technologies, in 1995 to offset the feast and famine nature of a business that is dependent on NASA and Defense Department contracts. He said that in most years the hobby rocket portion of the business accounts for 20 percent of profits, but in some years it can reach as high as 50 percent.

Although none of CP Technologies products are regulated under the law, he expects that it would lead to a general downturn in the hobby rocket industry.

"If you can't get a rocket motor who wants a body tube?" Wickman asked. What are you going to do with it? Throw it up in the air? If the law isn't changed, we'd lose a lot of customers."

Enzi, who launched hobby rockets when he was in high school, is working to win support for a provision exempting rocket fuel.

The Senate is expected to pass a bill that would make several minor changes to the Homeland Security Act and Enzi would like to have a provision exempting hobby rockets in the measure.