Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
LOW-TEMPERATURE, LIQUID-PHASE PROCESSES 122 in organic synthesis. These include LiAIH4, NaBH4, (CH3CH2CH2CH2)3 SnH, HPO2 and tris(trimethylsilyl) silane (Ballestri et al., 1991). Plausibly, some or all of these can destroy GB, VX, and H, but to the committee's knowledge, this has not been demonstrated through research. Reactions with sodium in liquid ammonia. Liquid ammonia (NH3) boils at -33°C, far below the freezing point of water; special arrangements to contain it are necessary. It is widely used in the United States, mostly as fertilizer but also as a solvent in the chemical industry, which is experienced in its handling. Sodium metal (Na) is soluble in liquid ammonia, and is a very strong reducing agent, easily cleaving carbon- halogen and carbon-sulfur bonds in molecules, as well as many other chemical bonds. Although the committee is unaware of studies of the action of Na in liquid NH3 on the chemical warfare agents in the U.S. stockpile, it believes that all the agents would be cleaved by Na in NH3 to form products of low toxicity. Also, they might be detoxified by reaction with NH3. Before plans to use this methodology to destroy agents were made, these expectations would need to be confirmed by laboratory studies. If either expectation is fulfilled, pilot plant work could then be able to move rapidly forward, making use of well-known industrial equipment and techniques. Other methods involving use of sodium metal Methods to dechlorinate polychlorobiphenyls and oligochlorodibenzodioxins by means of sodium metal have been developed. Picardi et al. (1991) suggested that these methods would also be useful for destroying CW agents. No doubt they would destroy the agents, although confirming would be needed before any of these methods could be seriously considered for large-scale use. An additional consideration is that all these methods involve an organic solveto (e.g., naphthalene-containing oil, tetrahydrofuran, amines) that would be unsuitable as such to release into the environment. Furthermore, they would probably form toxic compounds with phosphorus or sulfur, as mentioned above. DETOXIFICATION WITH IONIZING RADIATION The use of penetrating ionizing radiation, including X-rays, 60Co gamma radiation, and radiation from spent nuclear fuel elements, to rearrange chemical structure of compounds is being actively investigated (Matthews, 1992; see Appendices F and I). The current program for use of ionizing radiation is focused on chlorinated hydrocarbons. However, the approach could probably also be applied to weapons containing chemical warfare agents. This process could occur within loaded weapons, such as artillery
