Materiel storage

The Explosives Environment. The Army Materiel Command (AMC), which has the primary responsiblity for manufacture and storage of explosives for the Department of Defense, clarified its definition of the type of hazardous location involved with explosives, propellants, and pyrotechnics in its most recently revised safety manual (4). When the only consideration for hazardous environment is the presence of explosive material, it recommends that the environment be classified as Class II, Group G, with the appropriate division based on the probability of the hazardous element being present in the environment. It further states that consideration must be given to vapors which might be present or to the presence of metallic dust. 

SPIA/M2 (1959), Unit No 435 ARSENAL. A US Arsenal is a military installation of the Army Ordnance Corps (qv), primarily involved with the development, manufacture, loading, storage and issue of materiel used by the armed forces for the conduct of war. Arsenals with primary function of storage are usually called Depots... 

The Safety Manual AMCR 385-100 prescribes general safety rules for the US Army Materiel Command including those relevant to facility construction for explosive materiel operations and storage requirements, personal protective clothing and equipment together with quantity distance standards of explosives. 

DHHS will transfer authority for the SNS materiel to the state and local authorities once it arrives at the designated receiving and storage site. State and local authorities will then begin the breakdown of the 12-hour Push Package for distribution. SNS TARU members will remain on site in order to assist and advise state and local officials in putting the SNS assets to prompt and effective use. 

Outside of military conflicts, exposure to sulfur mustard has occurred or may occur in work environments associated with chemical weapon materiel (e.g. storage depots, demilitarization facilities, research laboratories), during emergency response operations or remediation and decontamination activities, or during treaty verification activities in support of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Chemical weapons such as the vesicants are stiU considered potential military threats and terrorist targets. The most likely route of exposure to sulfur mustard is via aerosol/vapor exposure of the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. 

Obsolete chemical weapons that have been in storage since the decades following World War II constitute the U.S. chemical stockpile and are differentiated from nonstockpile materiel. Facilities in the United States that have been constructed to destroy this stockpile employ assembly line systems for separating the agent from the munition. This is feasible because the munitions are overwhelmingly in a good and consistent condition. Leakers and other occasional nonuniform munitions that are periodically encountered can cause problems out of proportion to their numbers, however. 

Ordnance and Supply Units. Explosive Ordnance Detachments normally handle or coordinate the removal of all unexploded ordnance. The Industrial Operations Command (IOC) assists in the removal, storage and processing of equipment from the battlefield. Preventive medicine units need to coordinate with both the maintenance companies and IOC to ensure proper health physics practices. The Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license s holder for most of the radioactive items in the field. 

SBCCOM develops, acquires, and sustain NBC protective and detection equipment. It also provides for the safe storage and destruction of chemical materiel. SBCCOM is the primary focal point within the Department of Defense for NBC matters. 

Under the CWC, countries may apply for an extension of the deadline of up to 5 years. The United States has acknowledged that some of the stockpile destruction facilities are likely to continue to operate for several years beyond 2007. The Product Manager for Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel (PMNSCM) has indicated to the committee that the PMNSCM intends to meet the 2007 deadline for destruction of all recovered non-stockpile materiel currently in storage. 

The Army has at its disposition four principle types of facilities for treating non-stockpile chemical materiel nonstockpile facilities, designed to destroy large quantities of dissimilar CWM stockpile facilities, constructed to destroy large quantities of similar CWM research and development facilities and commercial treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs). 

Other Army organizations also support the RAP process at specific locations, such as the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM), the Army Environmental Center, and the Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. In addition, SBCCOM is responsible for permitted storage of NSCWM (and stockpile materiel) at installations where this materiel is stored. ... 

---