Decontamination waste from chemical weapons (CW) agents has been stored in ton containers on Johnston Atoll since 1971. The waste was recently sampled and analyzed to determine its chemical composition in preparation for disposal. Due to the range of products and analytical requirements, multiple chromatographic and spectroscopic methods were necessary, including gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS), gas chromatography/ atomic emission detection (GC/AED), liquid chromatography/ mass spectrometry (LC/MS), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). The samples were screened for residual agents. No residual sarin (GB) or VX was found to detection limits of 20 ng/mL, but 3% of the samples contained residual sulfur mustard (HD) at <140 ng/mL. Decontamination products of agents were identified. The majority (74%) of the ton containers were documented correctly, in that the observed decontamination products were in agreement with the labeled agent type, but for a number of the containers, the contents were not in agreement with the labels. In addition, arsenic compounds that are decontamination products of the agent lewisite (L) were observed in a few ton containers, suggesting that lewisite was originally present but not documented. This study was a prototype to demonstrate the level of effort required to characterize old bulk CW-related waste.
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REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY)XX-02-2014
REPORT TYPE
DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENTApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
ABSTRACTThe primary purpose of this effort was to determine the maximum loading of chemical warfare agents (CWA) which could be utilized and still meet the treatment goal under typical Explosive Destruction System (EDS) operating conditions. The intention was not to conduct an investigation into whether the reaction kinetics and product distribution change with increased agent loadings. The primary metric of success was the residual agent concentration remaining in the neutralent. GB was successfully neutralized to less than the treatment goal of 1 mg/L at loadings 3−5 times the typical GB loading of 10%. HD was successfully neutralized to less than the treatment goal of 50 mg/L at loadings 4−5 times the typical HD loading of 10%. VX was not reduced below the treatment goal of 1 mg/L under any of the conditions evaluated during this study. In the 1% VX loading experiments conducted at 60 °C for 6 h, the residual VX was approximately 3 times higher than the treatment goal.
SUBJECT TERMS
MonoethanoloamineForce The use of either trade or manufacturers' names in this report does not constitute an official endorsement of any commercial products. This report may not be cited for purposes of endorsement.This report has been approved for public release. The Explosive Destruction System (EDS) is a trailer-mounted containment vessel system designed to destroy chemical munitions with or without explosive components. The EDS employs explosive-shaped charges to detonate the munition burster and breach the munition wall exposing the chemical fill materiel. Once the fill materiel is exposed, chemical reagents are pumped into the EDS vessel, and the fill materiel is neutralized. In a recent report, throughput of munitions was cited as an area which could be improved. Increasing the amount of fill materiel neutralized during each run would be one way to increase throughput. This report summarizes efforts to determine the maximum amount of agent that can be neutralized and ...
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