This book responds to a request by the director of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) for the National Research Council to examine and evaluate the ongoing planning for closure of the four currently operational baseline incineration chemical agent disposal facilities and the closure of a related testing facility. The book evaluates the closure planning process as well as some aspects of closure operations that are taking place while the facilities are still disposing of agent. These facilities are located in Anniston, Alabama; Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Tooele, Utah; and Umatilla, Oregon. They are designated by the acronyms ANCDF, PBCDF, TOCDF, and UMCDF, respectively. Although the facilities all use the same technology and are in many ways identical, each has a particular set of challenges.

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS), the first fully integrated chemical agent disposal facility, is located on Johnston Island some 800 miles southwest of Hawaii. JACADS completed ten years of operations in November 2000, which resulted in the disposal of more than 2000 tons of nerve and mustard agents. In 1998, the Army began planning for closure and dismantling of the facility. In 1999, the NRC was asked to review the Army's planning. This book presents an assessment of planned and ongoing closure activities on Johnston Island in some detail. It also provides an analysis of the likely implications for closure of disposal facilities at eight continental U.S. storage sites.

The United States has maintained a stockpile of chemical warfare agents and munitions since World War I. The Army leadership has sought outside, unbiased advice on how best to dispose of the stockpile. In 1987, at the request of the Under Secretary of the Army, the National Research Council (NRC) established the Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee) to provide scientific and technical advice and counsel on the CSDP. This report is concerned with the technology selection for the Pueblo site, where only munitions containing mustard agent are stored. The report assesses a modified baseline process, a slightly simplified version of the baseline incineration system that was used to dispose of mustard munitions on Johnston Island. A second NRC committee is reviewing two neutralization-based technologies for possible use at Pueblo. The evaluation in this report is intended to assist authorities making the selection. It should also help the public and other non-Army stakeholders understand the modified baseline process and make sound judgments about it.

In 1993, at Tooele Army Depot, Utah, the Army completed construction of the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF), the first complete facility for destruction of lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions to be built in the continental United States. The TOCDF will employ the Army's baseline incineration system to destroy the depot's increment of the nation's aging unitary chemical stockpile. This book assesses Army changes and improvements to the TOCDF in response to recommendations contained in earlier reports of the committee. It assesses aspects of the facility's readiness for safe agent handling and destruction operations, its agent monitoring system, and its site specific risk assessment.

For the last two decades, the United States has been destroying its entire stockpile of chemical agents. At the facilities where these agents are being destroyed, effluent gas streams pass through large activated carbon filters before venting to ensure that any residual trace vapors of chemical agents and other pollutants do not escape into the atmosphere in exceedance of regulatory limits. All the carbon will have to be disposed of for final closure of these facilities to take place. In March 2008, the Chemical Materials Agency asked the National Research Council to study, evaluate, and recommend the best methods for proper and safe disposal of the used carbon from the operational disposal facilities. This volume examines various approaches to handling carbon waste streams from the four operating chemical agent disposal facilities. The approaches that will be used at each facility will ultimately be chosen bearing in mind local regulatory practices, facility design and operations, and the characteristics of agent inventories, along with other factors such as public involvement regarding facility operations.

For over a decade the Army has been carrying out a program aimed at the destruction of accumulated chemical weapons stored at several sites. While destruction by incineration has been successful, several incidentsâ€"called chemical eventsâ€"occurred during the disposal process or decontamination activities that raised some public concerns about the safety of operations of three third generation incineration facilities. As a result, the Congress asked the NRC to investigate whether the incidents provide information useful to help ensure safe operation of the future sites. This book presents an analysis of causes of and responses to past chemical events, implications of such events for ongoing and future demilitarization activities, and recommendations for preparing for future events.