LIVERMORE - The newest hedge against bioterrorism was unveiled Tuesday by Sandia Laboratories -- an 8-ton apparatus that neutralizes anthrax, sarin gas-infused weapons and other biochemical agents.
The Explosive Destruction System, or EDS, can be transported on a flatbed trailer, rail car or airplane to any site to neutralize bombs, suspect vials, canisters or other munitions.
The EDS units were developed by Sandia in 1998 for the U.S. Army. They have been dispatched to destroy 10 sarin-filled nerve agent bomblets at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, and neutralize a mortar containing the poison gas phosgene found in a farmer's field in Gadsen, Ala. That farm field formerly housed a World War II training base.
In all, 228 potentially deadly munitions or chemical weapons nationwide have been destroyed safely by the EDS since its creation. Now, with $60,000 spent by Sandia for new research, the system has the capability to destroy deadly new biohazards, giving Homeland Security a new tool, said project spokesman John Didlake.
Tests later showed the same device -- which looks like a large, sophisticated front-load washing machine -- that neutralizes munitions could, using different "reagents," make short work of biohazard materials, as well.
In recently completed experiments at the Sandia/California lab, scientists tested three different agents for their effectiveness in killing the anthrax spore. The spores used for the test were nonlethal genetic "cousins" of anthrax.
This newly fleshed-out aspect of the EDS could pay new dividends at home and abroad by the Army, Didlake said.
Items to be made safe for disposal are loaded inside a 3/4-inch-thick pipe that slides into a thick, stainless steel chamber. Once the hatch is closed, the canister is opened by a charge. If it contains explosives, the fragments are contained within the chamber. X-rays and a neutron spectrometer are used to determine what's inside the objects placed into the EDS. Then, the appropriate chemical reagents are fed into the spinning chamber to neutralize the dangerous elements.
An assortment of gauges and settings on the EDS allow operators to monitor the process and to check any malfunctions.
Two of Sandia's technical assistants, Bert Brown Jr. and Jimmy Ross, have traveled along on EDS bomb-eating forays for technical support. "Leakers," or rusted-out munitions with holes, are first encased in plaster of Paris and then in a special plastic bag before being placed in the chamber, Brown and Ross said.
The large EDS units cost $5 million to build, and some smaller ones $3.5 million, Didlake said.
The units are particularly handy for disarming and neutralizing munitions near population centers, he said. The old method was by open burn/open detonation, "which could blow the windows out of a town," Didlake said.
The system is safe, portable and results in a liquid effluent that can be disposed of at any commercial hazardous waste facility.
Didlake estimates there are about 100 sites nationwide where old World War I or II munitions could possibly be buried.
The system, patented by the Army, marries existing technologies so old munitions can be destroyed on site without having to be transported.