Chemical weaponsDestruction of 780,000 chemical munitions stockpiled in Colorado begins
This week Sandia National Laboratories’ Explosive Destruction System (EDS) began safely destroying stockpile chemical munitions for the U.S. Army. The project to destroy 560 chemical munitions at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado with EDS is a prelude to a much larger operation to destroy the stockpile of 780,000 munitions containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent, stored at the Pueblo depot since the 1950s.
This week Sandia National Laboratories’ Explosive Destruction System (EDS) began safely destroying stockpile chemical munitions for the U.S. Army. The project to destroy 560 chemical munitions at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado with EDS is a prelude to a much larger operation to destroy the stockpile of 780,000 munitions containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent, stored at the Pueblo depot since the 1950s.
A Sandia Lab release reports that the bulk of those munitions will be safely destroyed in the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant , which will begin operation later this year. The munitions to be destroyed in EDS are considered unsuited for processing by the plant’s automated equipment because they have leaked or have been sampled in the past.
“EDS was originally designed for nonstockpile chemical munitions at recovery sites, many of which are deformed and corroded,” explained mechanical engineer Brent Haroldsen, Sandia project lead. “Stockpile munitions are generally in better shape, but there are always a few that are leaking or damaged. That’s where EDS will come in to keep the plant moving efficiently.”
The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PEO ACWA) is overseeing the pilot plant as well as the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant near Richmond, Kentucky. Once the pilot plant begins operation, the Sandia EDS systems will remain at the site to process any additional reject munitions unsuitable for processing in the Pueblo pilot plant.
Latest EDS model destroys munitions twice as fast
The two EDS units that will augment the pilot plant operation work much faster than the original EDS, which took two days to process a single munition. Sandia designed that system for the Army in the late 1990s to destroy munitions that were discovered unexpectedly.
Safely to destroy a few damaged munitions at a time, possibly in populated areas, the original design emphasized transportability, flexibility, redundancy, surety of destruction and simplicity of manual operation — not rapid processing.
The Army first used EDS in 2001 at Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado and then at other locations where abandoned munitions were recovered. Sandia then created a larger version, capable of destroying multiple munitions simultaneously and handling munitions with a higher explosive charge. In 2010, Sandia engineers created the Phase 2 Pilot (P2P), which decreased the processing time from two days to one through changes to the heating and cooling system and door clamp design.
