Defense Environment Alert

an exclusive biweekly report on defense policies for cleanup, compliance and pollution prevention

Vol. 14, No. 15

July 25, 2006

ACWA PLANS FULL-SCALE TESTING AT BLUE GRASS CITING TREATY, COSTS

The Defense Department is citing cost and treaty compliance reasons to justify on-site testing of a secondary treatment process for destroying chemical weapons stockpiled in Kentucky, rather than following a scientific review panel's advice to conduct more full-scale testing elsewhere first.

The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program will finish pilot-scale testing of a treatment technology known as supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) while building a full-scale facility at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Lexington, KY, instead of conducting the testing at a separate facility, an ACWA source says.

It will conduct full-scale testing during systemization of the Blue Grass facility, while accounting in the project's budget and schedule for the technical complications related to on-site testing. "We built in a longer amount of time" and additional funding for the full-scale unit because it will take a certain amount of time "to tweak the system as we ramp it up," the source says.

The decision comes despite recommendations a panel of the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council (NRC) made in a July 3 letter report advising ACWA to first use a separate full-size unit to test the technology.

NRC's recommendations to conduct full-scale testing at a separate facility would significantly increase costs, the ACWA source says. "We'd rather spend the money on the [Kentucky] plant itself' than for full-scale testing elsewhere.

It would also risk violating an international chemical weapons treaty, the ACWA source says, because agent would have to be moved to an out-of-state facility. The source notes that there currently is no full-scale facility at which to conduct the offsite testing NRC recommends.

ACWA plans to use neutralization to destroy chemical agents and energetic materials stored at Blue Grass, resulting in a hydrolysate. Neutralization will be followed by SCWO, a process that uses high temperatures and pressure to break down the hydrolysate into carbon dioxide, water and salts. ACWA had requested a review by the NRC following a redesign of the system. Originally, the Office of the Secretary of Defense had tasked ACWA with accelerating the destruction program at the Kentucky site and its other site in Pueblo, CO, but then told the program to redesign the system due to the high costs associated with such acceleration, the ACWA source says.

The NRC findings will help feed into decisions top Pentagon acquisition officials will make next month over the Blue Grass and Pueblo programs, the source says.

In its report, the NRC panel says that while the SCWO technology is not mature, the proposed application can be used "if adequate testing is performed." NRC in particular raises questions over potential corrosion problems that could result.

"The committee believes that, at the proposed flow rates, the full-size SCWO unit could have an unacceptably high level of technical risk because there is no mechanistic understanding of corrosion, hydriding, salt flow, and, in particular, the effect of fluid velocity in the reaction zone. The committee believes the level of technical risk would be acceptable for the near-full-scale SCWO unit at the flow rates demonstrated during testing," the report says.

"The technical risk for the proposed full-size SCWO unit at the proposed flow rates could become acceptable if adequate additional testing is performed before the unit is used," it says. The committee suggests full-scale testing at existing General Atomics reactors. General Atomics is a subcontractor for the demilitarization project at Blue Grass.

The recommendation is similar to previous NRC suggestions for DOD to conduct full-scale testing, the ACWA source says.

But ACWA plans to complete full-scale testing on-site using the unit it plans to employ for disposal of the weapons, avoiding cost and treaty issues expected with the NRC recommendations, the source says. In addition, "technical risk associated with the findings in the NRC letter report have already been factored into the [Blue Grass facility's] schedule, thus they are anticipated," points out a spokesman for the chemical demilitarization watchdog group Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG).

In terms of concerns over corrosion with SCWO, the ACWA source says that even if liners on the system have to be replaced frequently due to corrosion, it is affordable at the Blue Grass site because the amount of hydrolysate to be processed will be small due to the small stockpile at that site.

In addition, the program has prepared for adequate temporary storage of hydrolysate should slower SCWO flow rates be necessary to process the waste, the CWWG spokesman says. Further, pilot-testing has been at nearly full scale, using a reactor with an inside diameter of just I and 9/16th inches smaller than the full-scale model will be, he adds.

The Defense Acquisition Board is set to meet Aug. 14 to make long-term funding decisions for the Blue Grass and Pueblo chem demil programs in light of technology redesigns, the ACWA source says. The board will decide on funding for fiscal years 2008-2013. While the Defense Department requested full funding in fiscal year 2007 for the ACWA program - $350 million - right now, DOD continues to plan funding levels for the program at "caretaker status" - about $30 million a year for several years beyond FY07, the ACWA source says. Lawmakers have in the
past criticized DOD for the "caretaker" levels of funding.

Meanwhile, two Senate appropriations subcommittees last week approved funding for the two ACWA program sites at $360 million for FY07, following a push by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), CWWG said in a press release. House appropriators earlier this year approved a level $40 million less than the Bush administration's request, it says. McConnell was also successful in fencing off the funding for the ACWA program so it cannot be used for
other purposes, the release says.