Chemical warfare munitions

Wild, JR USDA To develop an effective and complete biological remediation system capable of hydrolyzing organophosphorous neurotoxins from agricultural and chemical warfare munitions, contaminations, and wastes. 

Various investigators had conducted field experiments with chemical warfare munitions over a wide variety of terrain, latitude, and climate. In 1945 there was no adequate systematization of these data, an inevitable outcome of non-standardized sampling and reporting. 

NOTE AC, hydrogen cyanide CK, cyanogen chloride HD, distilled mustard HN-1, nitrogen mustard RCWM, recovered chemical warfare munitions. 

The EDS is a trailer-mounted mobile system that is intended to destroy explosively configured chemical warfare munitions that are deemed to be unsafe to transport or store routinely. It can also be used to destroy limited numbers of stable chemical munitions, with or without explosive components, when the quantity of these munitions does not require the use of other higher-capacity destruction systems. Technologies to destroy EDS secondary wastes were reviewed in an earlier report (NRC, 2001b). The EDS is described in Appendix E. 

Such large-scale destruction operations proved to raise complicated economic, social and ecological problems, and may yet have profound effects on population and the environment. The dumpings of old chemical warfare munitions and repositories of CW agents, remaining after past wars, still fiuther complicate things. 

The mission of the EDS is to destroy explosively configured chemical warfare munitions, contain the blast and fragments in opening the munition, and treat the chemical fill of the munition, in an environmentally friendly manner. The EDS is intended for use with World War 1 and World War II vintage chemical warfare materiel (CWM) produced before 1945. Post-World War II munitions have larger bursters that exceed the capacity of the system. 

The Japanese also used chemical weapons during WWn. The Japanese Imperial Army injured and killed close to 100,000 people during the war using chemical and biological weapons. An estimated two million chemical warfare munitions and approximately 100 tons of toxic chemicals were abandoned in China alone when Japan surrendered. These abandoned chemical munitions continue to inflict casualties. As recently as August 4,2003, mustard gas leaking from an abandoned Japanese chemical weapons plant in northeast China killed at least 1 civilian and injured 35 others. Abandoned chemical weapons in China have caused an estimated 2,000 deaths since WWII. 

Toxic Gas Handlers (Officers) (3 weeks) To train officers in all phases of handling offensive chemical warfare munitions, naval materiel, and bulk agents. 

The chief reason for the great number of inspectors in 1942 was the prevailing practice of inspecting end items and components on a 100 percent basis. Despite this practice inferior chemical warfare munitions were being sent to installations in the zone of interior and to the theaters. ... 

Korolenko, K.A., 2003. Chemical Warfare Munitions Dumped in the Baltic Sea Modeling of Pollutant Transport Due to Possible Leakage. Oceanology 1, 21—34. 

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