The main approach adopted by the U.S. Army for destruction of all declared chemical weapon materiel (CWM) is incineration. There has been considerable public opposition to this approach, however, and the Army is developing a mix of fixed site and mobile treatment technologies to dispose of non-stockpile CWM. To assist in this effort, the Army requested NRC to review and evaluate these technologies, and to assess its plans for obtaining regulatory approval for and to involve the public in decisions about the application of those technologies. This book presents an assessment of non-stockpile treatment options and the application of these systems to the non-stockpile inventory, of regulatory and permitting issues, and of the role of the public.

The U.S. Army is in the process of destroying its chemical weapons stockpile and related, non-stockpile chemical materiel. At the request of the Army, the National Research Council (NRC) has published a number of studies over the last 16 years providing scientific and technical advice on that disposal effort. For this study, the NRC was asked to assess the design of the facility at the Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Arsenal intended to dispose of a large amount of non-stockpile materiel, including 1250 recovered old chemical weapons. This is the first of a series of studies directed at reviewing and assessing the Product Manager for Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel initiatives for destruction of this materiel. The report provides the results of the Pine Bluff assessment. It includes a description of the Pine Bluff facility; a discussion of worker and public safety; management issues; regulatory, permitting, and public involvement; and the role of alternative destruction technologies currently residing at the facility.

FRANCIS W. HOLM 30 Agua Sarca Road, Placitas, New Mexico 1. Overview The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sponsored an Advanced Research in Prague, Czech Republic, on October 13-15, 1997, to collect and Workshop (ARW) study information on effluents from alternative demilitarization technologies and to report on these fmdings. The effluents, orprocess residues, identified for assessment at the workshop are generated by systems that have been proposed as alternatives to incineration technology for destruction of munitions, chemical warfare agent, and associated materials and debris. The alternative technologies analyzed are grouped into three categories based on process bulk operating temperature: low (0-200 C), medium (200-600 C), and high (600-3,500 C). Reaction types considered include hydrolysis, biodegradation, electrochemical oxidation, gas-phase high-temperature reduction, steam reforming, gasification, sulfur reactions, solvated electron chemistry, sodium reactions, supercritical water oxidation, wet air oxidation, and plasma torch technology. These ofprocesses, some of which have been studied categories represent a broad spectrum only in the laboratory and some of which are in commercial use for destruction of hazardous and toxic wastes. Some technologies have been developed and used for specific commercial applications; however, in all cases, research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) is necessary to assure that each technology application is effective for destroying chemical warfare materiel. Table 1 contains a list of more than 40 technologies from a recent report for the U.S. Army [1]. Many ofthe technologies in Table 1 are based on similar principles.

The U.S. Army's Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel program is responsible for dismantling former chemical agent production facilities and destroying recovered chemical materiel. In response to congressional requirements, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), in 2003, recommended new airborne exposure limits (AELs) to protect workforce and public health during operations to destroy this materiel. To assist in meeting these recommended limits, the U.S. Army asked the NRC for a review of its implementation plans for destruction of production facilities at the Newport Chemical Depot and the operation of two types of mobile destruction systems. This report presents the results of that review. It provides recommendations on analytical methods, on airborne containment monitoring, on operational procedures, on the applicability of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and on involvement of workers and the public in implementation of the new AELs.