Chemical Weapons Destruction And Explosive Waste

Some of the more difficult environmental problems facing the Department of Defense (DOD) include (1) chemical weapons destruction, (2) explosive waste remediation, and (3) unexploded ordnance clearance and extraction. It is conceivable that $50 to $100 billion will be spent by DOD for these three programs, offering unusual opportunities for environmental engineering and related firms. Military installations are similar to small cities in terms of population, industrial activities, and some types of contaminated sites. However, some cover an area larger than a small state. DOD has operated industrial facilities on its installations for several decades that have generated, stored, recycled, or disposed of hazardous wastes. Many of these activities have contaminated the nearby soil and groundwater. To study and clean up contaminated sites, DOD established the Installation Restoration Program (IRP) in 1975. In 1984, the IRP was made part of the Defense Environmental Restoration Program. The Secretary of Defense delegated cleanup responsibility to the Army, Navy, the Air Force, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Cleanup actions are usually accomplished under contract with private firms, which are monitored by the services. Most cleanup actions are funded through the Defense Environmental Restoration Account (DERA) and the Base Realignment and Closure Account. Congress established DERA in 1984 to fund the cleanup of inactive contaminated sites on DOD installations. The technology to clean up the conventional hazardous wastes on DOD sites are the same as those utilized for industrial sites, and well-documented by this publisher. However, there are three DOD programs that require the utilization of somewhat unusual or different technologies that have not been as well documented. These three programs are: 1. Chemical weapons destruction 2. Remediation of explosives contaminated soils and lagoons 3. Unexploded ordnance detection, clearance, and extraction This book discusses the current and potential treatment technologies involved in these three programs.

Chemical warfare materiel (CWM) encompasses diverse items that were used during 60 years of efforts by the United States to develop a capability for conducting chemical warfare. Non-Stockpile CWM (NSCWM) is materiel not included in the current U.S. inventory of chemical munitions and includes buried materiel, recovered materiel, components of binary chemical weapons, former production facilities, and miscellaneous materiel. Because NSCWM is stored or buried at many locations, the Army is developing transportable treatment systems that can be moved from site to site as needed. Originally, the Army planned to develop three transportable treatment systems for nonstockpile chemical materiel: the rapid response system (RRS), the munitions management device (MMD), and the explosive destruction system (EDS). This report supplements an earlier report that evaluated eight alternative technologies for destruction of the liquid waste streams from two of the U.S. Army's transportable treatment systems for nonstockpile chemical materiel: the RRS and the MMD. This report evaluates the same technologies for the destruction of liquid waste streams produced by the EDS and discusses the regulatory approval issues and obstacles for the combined use of the EDS and the alternative technologies that treat the EDS secondary waste streams. Although it focuses on the destruction of EDS neutralent, it also takes into consideration the ability of posttreatment technologies to process the more dilute water rinses that are used in the EDS following treatment with a reagent.

The Army's ability to meet public and congressional demands to destroy expeditiously all of the U.S. declared chemical weapons would be enhanced by the selection and acquisition of appropriate explosive destruction technologies (EDTs) to augment the main technologies to be used to destroy the chemical weapons currently at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) in Kentucky and the Pueblo Chemical Depot (PCD) in Colorado. The Army is considering four EDTs for the destruction of chemical weapons: three from private sector vendors, and a fourth, Army-developed explosive destruction system (EDS). This book updates earlier evaluations of these technologies, as well as any other viable detonation technologies, based on several considerations including process maturity, process efficacy, process throughput, process safety, public and regulatory acceptability, and secondary waste issues, among others. It also provides detailed information on each of the requirements at BGAD and PCD and rates each of the existing suitable EDTs plus the Army's EDS with respect to how well it satisfies these requirements.

Chemical warfare materiel (CWM) is a collection of diverse items that were used during 60 years of efforts by the United States to develop a capability for conducting chemical warfare. Nonstockpile CWM, which is not included in the current U.S. inventory of chemical munitions, includes buried materiel, recovered materiel, binary chemical weapons, former production facilities, and miscellaneous materiel. CWM that was buried in pits on former military sites is now being dug up as the land is being developed for other purposes. Other CWM is on or near the surface at former test and firing ranges. According to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which was ratified by the United States in April 1997, nonstockpile CWM items in storage at the time of ratification must be destroyed by 2007. The U.S. Army is the designated executive agent for destroying CWM. Nonstockpile CWM is being handled by the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program (NSCMP); stockpile CWM is the responsibility of the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program. Because nonstockpile CWM is stored or buried in many locations, the Army is developing transportable disposal systems that can be moved from site to site as needed. The Army has plans to test prototypes of three transportable systems-the rapid response system (RRS), the munitions management device (MMD), and the explosive destruction system (EDS)-for accessing and destroying a range of nonstockpile chemical agents and militarized industrial chemicals. The RRS is designed to treat recovered chemical agent identification sets (CAIS), which contain small amounts of chemical agents and a variety of highly toxic industrial chemicals. The MMD is designed to treat nonexplosively configured chemical munitions. The EDS is designed to treat munitions containing chemical agents with energetics equivalent to three pounds of TNT or less. These munitions are considered too unstable to be transported or stored. A prototype EDS system has recently been tested in England by non-stockpile program personnel. Although originally proposed for evaluation in this report, no test data were available to the committee on the composition of wastes from the EDS. Therefore, alternative technologies for the destruction of EDS wastes will be discussed in a supplemental report in fall 2001. Treatment of solid wastes, such as metal munition bodies, packing materials, and carbon air filters, were excluded from this report. Review and Evaluation of the Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Disposal Program: Disposal of Neutralent Wastes evaluates the near-term (1999-2005) application of advanced (nonincineration) technologies, such as from the Army's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program and the Alternative Technologies and Approaches Project, in a semi-fixed, skid-mounted mode to process Rapid Response System, Munitions Management Device, and Explosive Destruction System liquid neutralization wastes.

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 Chemical Weapons Convention requires, among other things, that the signatories to the conventionâ€"which includes the United Statesâ€"destroy by April 29, 2007, or as soon possible thereafter, any chemical warfare materiel that has been recovered from sites where it has been buried once discovered. For several years the United States and several other countries have been developing and using technologies to dispose of this non-stockpile materiel. To determine whether international efforts have resulted in technologies that would benefit the U.S. program, the U.S. Army asked the NRC to evaluate and compare such technologies to those now used by the United States. This book presents a discussion of factors used in the evaluations, summaries of evaluations of several promising international technologies for processing munitions and for agent-only processing, and summaries of other technologies that are less likely to be of benefit to the U.S. program at this time.

Unexploded military ordnance and toxic chemicals, some dating back to World War I, are a worldwide concern, especially at closed military bases that will be redeveloped for housing or civilian use. In Europe and Asia, many munitions sites are former battlegrounds; in Russia and its former territories, sites are used for storage and waste disposal. Experts estimate that the United States alone could spend between $50 and 250 billion dollars to cleanup these sites, many of which are in high-population density, residential areas. You might live near one such site right now. This book gives detailed instructions for cleaning up military ordnance sites, and lists of explosives, chemical warfare materials and breakdown products that the soil and groundwater must be tested for. Also included are archival studies; remote sensing techniques; geophysical techniques; safety issues; a chemical weapons, explosives and ordnance primer; known and unknown range lists; and a case study of documents written for cleaning up one of the worst examples yet: Spring Valley in the District of Columbia. It disproves myths, common misconceptions and lies, and explains what, how, and where to look for munitions and their residual contamination. * Author is an award winning and world-renowned expert in weapons of mass destruction. * Meets the needs of explosive and ordnance demolition personnel, as well as environmental scientists, insurance agents, and building contractors. * Includes the primary documents written (by the author) for the cleanup of one of the worst sites in the United States (Spring Valley, District of Columbia). * Subject of the book is of worldwide concern with former battlegrounds in Europe and Asia, as well as storage and waste disposal sites in Russia and former Soviet territories. * The only text available with clear and complete instructions on proper cleanup of military ordnance sites including a detailed list of explosives, chemical warfare material and breakdown products.