National Academies Press: OpenBook

Alternative Technologies for the Destruction of Chemical Agents and Munitions (1993)

Chapter: 4 Requirements and Considerations for Chemical Demilitarization Technologies

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Suggested Citation:"4 Requirements and Considerations for Chemical Demilitarization Technologies." National Research Council. 1993. Alternative Technologies for the Destruction of Chemical Agents and Munitions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2218.
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Page 75

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REQUIREMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 75 4 Requirements and Considerations for Chemical Demilitarization Technologies As discussed in Chapter 2, the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile exists in several forms. Some chemical agent is stored as bulk liquid in ton containers. Much, however, comes in weapons that are ready for transport to the battlefield and can be fired after relatively simple arming procedures. For such weapons, the current destruction or demilitarization baseline program includes reverse assembly, in which chemical agent is first separated from weapons containers and any explosives or propellants. Technologies used for chemical agent destruction must entail a very low risk of agent release to the workplace and the environment. Because of the agents' extreme toxicity, the standards for their destruction (including the decontamination of weapons parts that have been in contact with agent) are much more demanding than the standards for the destruction of other chemicals. The serious consequences of any inadvertent release of agent near adjacent populations requires that the systems design for any disposal facility provide strict controls for the release of any substances to the environment. It may also be desirable to store waste streams for testing before releasing them to the environment. Stringent requirements are needed to protect worker safety and health. Finally, all effluents must also meet applicable regulatory requirements. This chapter describes the major requirements and considerations relating to chemical demilitarization: • chemical composition of agents and their breakdown products; • waste streams resulting from chemical weapons destruction; including that from the reverse assembly procedure used to avoid complications in destroying explosive weapon components; • processing rates required for chemical demilitarization; • performance standards for all effluent air, liquid, and solid streams: standards are discussed for single-step operations in which full destruction and decontamination are accomplished by a single process, and for multiple-step

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The U.S. Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program was established with the goal of destroying the nation's stockpile of lethal unitary chemical weapons. Since 1990 the U.S. Army has been testing a baseline incineration technology on Johnston Island in the southern Pacific Ocean. Under the planned disposal program, this baseline technology will be imported in the mid to late 1990s to continental United States disposal facilities; construction will include eight stockpile storage sites.

In early 1992 the Committee on Alternative Chemical Demilitarization Technologies was formed by the National Research Council to investigate potential alternatives to the baseline technology. This book, the result of its investigation, addresses the use of alternative destruction technologies to replace, partly or wholly, or to be used in addition to the baseline technology. The book considers principal technologies that might be applied to the disposal program, strategies that might be used to manage the stockpile, and combinations of technologies that might be employed.

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