[CPEO-MEF] Explosive Destruction System for chemical munitions

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Note the Explosive Destruction System is not designed for the routine
destruction of stockpiled chemical munitions. - LS]


Lab rolls out weapon destroyer 
$5 million device is one of five portable devices certified to safely
neutralize chemical artillery 

By Ian Hoffman
Tri-Valley Herald (CA)
February 16, 2005

After devoting six years, engineers sent a strange, armored contraption
rolling out of Livermore on Tuesday for final testing before it destroys
the last remnants of the U.S. chemical weapons arsenal. 

Working for the U.S. Army, Sandia National Laboratories-California
assembled five of the only portable devices certified as capable of
ripping open chemical mortar and artillery shells and safely
neutralizing the poisons inside. 

The last, $5 million device of five custom-made Explosive Detection
[sic] Systems is headed for Albuquerque for a final round of explosive
testing, then off to Army chemical munitions sites where workers will
use it to dispose of hundreds of chemical arms dating to the earliest
chapters of the Cold War. 

They will plant shaped charges on top of a few shells at a time inside
of the EDS vault-like blast vessel, seal the heavy steel door and
detonate them, slicing open the shells to release the gas. Workers then
will pump in caustic chemicals to destroy the gas and remove a sample in
a sealed, steel cannister for confirmation testing. 

Right now, we can do three munitions at one time, said John Rosenow, an
explosives expert and senior field test engineer for the device. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=2570071

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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