Assessment of Agent Monitoring Strategies for the Blue Grass and Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants
Title | Assessment of Agent Monitoring Strategies for the Blue Grass and Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants PDF eBook |
Author | National Research Council |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 192 |
Release | 2012-10-21 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0309259851 |
January 2012 saw the completion of the U.S. Army's Chemical Materials Agency's (CMA's) task to destroy 90 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons. CMA completed destruction of the chemical agents and associated weapons deployed overseas, which were transported to Johnston Atoll, southwest of Hawaii, and demilitarized there. The remaining 10 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile is stored at two continental U.S. depots, in Lexington, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado. Their destruction has been assigned to a separate U.S. Army organization, the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) Element. ACWA is currently constructing the last two chemical weapons disposal facilities, the Pueblo and Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants (denoted PCAPP and BGCAPP), with weapons destruction activities scheduled to start in 2015 and 2020, respectively. ACWA is charged with destroying the mustard agent stockpile at Pueblo and the nerve and mustard agent stockpile at Blue Grass without using the multiple incinerators and furnaces used at the five CMA demilitarization plants that dealt with assembled chemical weapons - munitions containing both chemical agents and explosive/propulsive components. The two ACWA demilitarization facilities are congressionally mandated to employ noncombustion-based chemical neutralization processes to destroy chemical agents. In order to safely operate its disposal plants, CMA developed methods and procedures to monitor chemical agent contamination of both secondary waste materials and plant structural components. ACWA currently plans to adopt these methods and procedures for use at these facilities. The Assessment of Agent Monitoring Strategies for the Blue Grass and Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants report also develops and describes a half-dozen scenarios involving prospective ACWA secondary waste characterization, process equipment maintenance and changeover activities, and closure agent decontamination challenges, where direct, real-time agent contamination measurements on surfaces or in porous bulk materials might allow more efficient and possibly safer operations if suitable analytical technology is available and affordable.
Review and Assessment Program Options for Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants at Blue Grass
Title | Review and Assessment Program Options for Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plants at Blue Grass PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Electronic book |
ISBN |
Review Criteria for Successful Treatment of Hydrolysate at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant
Title | Review Criteria for Successful Treatment of Hydrolysate at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant PDF eBook |
Author | National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 194 |
Release | 2015-10-05 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 0309376432 |
In 1993, the United States signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an international treaty outlawing the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. The chemical weapons stockpiles at five of the U.S. chemical weapons storage sites have now been destroyed. At those sites, the munitions were robotically opened and the chemical agent was removed, collected, and incinerated. One of the remaining sites with chemical weapons stockpiles is the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. In this case, caustic hydrolysis will be used to destroy the agents and energetics, resulting in a secondary waste stream known as hydrolysate. Review Criteria for Successful Treatment of Hydrolysate at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant develops criteria for successfully treating the hydrolysate, identifies systemization data that should factor into the criteria/decision process, suggests potential modifications to suggested treatment that would allow continued onsite processing, and assesses waste disposal procedures. This study further examines the possibility of delay or failure of the existing technology and examines possible alternatives to onsite treatment.
AR 525-92 08/02/2010 ARMY ARMS CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION POLICY , Survival Ebooks
Title | AR 525-92 08/02/2010 ARMY ARMS CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION POLICY , Survival Ebooks PDF eBook |
Author | Us Department Of Defense |
Publisher | Delene Kvasnicka www.survivalebooks.com |
Pages | 33 |
Release | |
Genre | Reference |
ISBN |
AR 525-92 08/02/2010 ARMY ARMS CONTROL IMPLEMENTATION POLICY , Survival Ebooks
Letter Report on the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant's Water Recovery System
Title | Letter Report on the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant's Water Recovery System PDF eBook |
Author | National Research Council (U.S.). Committee to Review the Water Recovery System for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant |
Publisher | |
Pages | 52 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Chemical weapons disposal |
ISBN |
Letter Report on the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant's Water Recovery System
Title | Letter Report on the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant's Water Recovery System PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 52 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Chemical weapons disposal |
ISBN |
Alternatives for the Demilitarization of Conventional Munitions
Title | Alternatives for the Demilitarization of Conventional Munitions PDF eBook |
Author | National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 133 |
Release | 2019-01-11 |
Genre | Technology & Engineering |
ISBN | 0309477352 |
The U.S. military has a stockpile of approximately 400,000 tons of excess, obsolete, or unserviceable munitions. About 60,000 tons are added to the stockpile each year. Munitions include projectiles, bombs, rockets, landmines, and missiles. Open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) of these munitions has been a common disposal practice for decades, although it has decreased significantly since 2011. OB/OD is relatively quick, procedurally straightforward, and inexpensive. However, the downside of OB and OD is that they release contaminants from the operation directly into the environment. Over time, a number of technology alternatives to OB/OD have become available and more are in research and development. Alternative technologies generally involve some type of contained destruction of the energetic materials, including contained burning or contained detonation as well as contained methods that forego combustion or detonation. Alternatives for the Demilitarization of Conventional Munitions reviews the current conventional munitions demilitarization stockpile and analyzes existing and emerging disposal, treatment, and reuse technologies. This report identifies and evaluates any barriers to full-scale deployment of alternatives to OB/OD or non-closed loop incineration/combustion, and provides recommendations to overcome such barriers.