Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant

The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) is a chemical weapons destruction plant -- the last one built in the United States -- located on Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) dedicated to the destruction of 523 tons of nerve agents GB (sarin) and VX, and mustard gas, or about two percent of the United States chemical weapons stockpile. [http://www.pmacwa.army.mil/ky/main.htm]

Project team members, community partners and stakeholders celebrated the Groundbreaking Open House on October 28, 2006, to mark the start of construction.

Since 1944, the Army has stored safely approximately two percent of the nation's original chemical weapons stockpile at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond. To dispose of this aging stockpile, plans are underway to build a chemical weapons destruction facility.

The Army conducted studies to evaluate potential impacts of the elimination of these weapons using incineration and non-incineration methods. Four technologies were considered: incineration, chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation, chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation and gas phase chemical reduction; and electrochemical oxidation. The Department of Defense selected neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation, or "SCWO" for use at the depot based on technical and environmental studies and input from the community.

A basic contract was awarded June 2003 to a joint venture team comprised of the California companies Bechtel National, Inc., and Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, Inc. The Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass team is contracted to develop a design-build plan with additional task orders to be awarded in the future for the design, construction, systemization, pilot testing, operation and closure of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant.

Groundbreaking for the chemical destruction facility took place on October 2, 2006. Due to funding restrictions, the design-build-operate-close schedule has been extended. Final design of the facilities should be complete in 2010 and construction in 2018. After a planned two-years of pilot testing of the neutralization procedure and systemization of the plant, full-scale destruction of the chemical stockpile will start. The plant will operate until all the chemical weapons have been destroyed and then will start the closure (shut-down, dismantling, and restoration of site) process sometime in the mid 2020s. This will put the United States in violation of the Chemical Weapons Treaty which states April 2012 as the final date for the destruction of all chemical weapons.

How the Technology Works

Together with BGAD, the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program has worked with the community in selecting neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) as the technology to destroy the chemical weapons stored there.

Here is how neutralization followed by SCWO works:
* Munitions are disassembled by modified reverse assembly.
* The chemical agent and energetics are separated. Agent and energetics are chemically mixed with caustic or water to destroy the chemical agent using hydrolysis. The resulting chemical compounds are known as hydrolysates.
* Hydrolysates are held and tested to ensure agent destruction before proceeding to secondary treatment.
* The agent and energetic hydrolysates are fed to the SCWO units to destroy the organic materials. SCWO subjects the hydrolysate to very high temperatures and pressures, breaking them down into carbon dioxide, water and salts.
* Metal parts are thermally decontaminated by high-pressure water washout and heating to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit for a minimum of 15 minutes. The metal parts can then be safely recycled.
* Gas effluents are filtered through a series of HEPA and carbon filters before being released to the atmosphere. Water is recycled into the pilot plant facility and reused as part of the destruction process.

References

* cite web
url = http://www.cma.army.mil/state.aspx?state=Kentucky
title = The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) - Kentucky
accessdate = 2006-09-17
date = 2004-07-28
publisher = U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency
* cite web
url = http://www.pmacwa.army.mil/ky/cw_disposal_ky.htm
title = ACWA - Blue Grass - Chemical Weapons Disposal:
accessdate = 2006-09-17
date = 2006-07-25
work = Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program
publisher = United States Department of Defense