Porton Down tests

For large caches of RCWM such as may be found at old burial sites, the presumed greater productivity (munitions per week) of the larger CDC systems would seem to offer a cost advantage over the EDS-2. Again, a detailed analysis based on productivity demonstrated in the 2006 Porton Down tests would be required to establish the presumed cost advantage. In this type of operation, the CDC should also be compared to transportable versions of the DAVINCH and Dynasafe systems. 

During the late 1950s and early 1960s hundreds of American servicemen and civilians underwent experiments in which they were given so-called psychochemicals , drugs which the Army hoped would prove that war without death was indeed possible. In Britain a similar, smaller series of tests involved over 140 experiments in which Porton Down tested LSD, the most potent of the candidate weapons.30 The search had begun soon after the Second World War. 

This Porton Down test report also provided details of earlier Porton Down testing that were not known when the NRC International Technologies report was prepared (NRC, 2006 DiBerardo et al., 2007). In September 2004, an operator observed that one of the expansion joints in the crossover pipes between the detonation chamber and the expansion tank had cracked. Subsequently, several of the expansion joints upstream and downstream of the expansion chamber were replaced, using a modified design. No further expansion joint failures were experienced during the testing at Porton Down. 

Upon completion of the Porton Down tests and closure of the site, the TDC system was prepared for shipment to Crescent City, Illinois, for storage. In December 2007 and January 2008, the system was prepared for shipment to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Several flexible connections were replaced. The flow control valves on the 3-in. and 10-in. pipes between the expansion tank and the air pollution control system were rebuilt. Tests were run using simulated equipment test hardware for 155-mm projectiles and 4.2-in. mortars in preparation for operations at Schofield Barracks. Planning was done for destruction of 155-mm projectiles in Hawaii the TDC had not previously destroyed... 

In the Porton Down tests, the fuze or burster in the munition failed to detonate in several cases. 

Apart from the variety of possible agent fills, there are several other reasons why unusual compounds might be present in recovered munitions. Special formulations of agents and industrial chemicals were sometimes used to achieve certain effects. For instance, tin tetrachloride was encountered in phosgene rounds treated in the Porton Down tests of the EDS-1. This chemical was added to facilitate the penetration of gas masks and to produce a smoke that aided in spotting where rounds had landed. Chlorobenzene, possibly used as a solvent or stabilizer, was found in the mustard rounds processed at Porton Down (Table 2-1). Chlorinated rubber was used as a thickener in some mustard formulations. In addition, unusual compounds or sludges may result from chemical reactions such as corrosion and polymerization that may occur among the components over a period of decades. 

See also No Charges over Porton Down Tests , BBC News Channel, 12 June... 

Syal, R., and S. Bisset, Ex-Ministers Face Police Inquiry on Porton Down Tests , The Sunday Telegraph, 29 October 2000. 

Woolf, M., Live Pigs Blown Up in Porton Down Tests , The Independent, 22 anuary 1995-... 

Porton Down - British Chemical Testing Laboratories... 

Toward the end of 1964, British scientist Dr. Bill Ladell invited me to visit Porton Down, where the secret Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment was located. Bill thought I would find it useful to observe an LSD field test, which was designed to test the ability of highly trained LSD-dosed commandos to defend their position against undrugged attackers. ... 

Flame photometry involves burning the sample in a hydrogen flame and measuring the characteristic emission of the agent used, e.g. sodium chloride. The method was developed at the Dsd, Porton Down, UK in the 1960s, and is now used extensively throughout the world it is specified in British Standards (BS) (1969) and is also specified as a routine laboratory test in the BS (1992). 

The CDC T-10 model tested in Belgium can treat complete chemical munitions up to 105-mm in diameter. A larger mobile unit (TC-25) was tested extensively at Porton Down, England (Blades et al., 2004) (see Figure 4-1). A still larger unit (TC-60) with an explosive capacity of 60 pounds of TNT-equivalent is now available (Bixler, 2005). It can handle munitions over 200 mm in diameter, according to the manufacturer. Table 4-1 provides the dimensions of the pressure chambers for the three CDC models. 

Following the success of the Belgian testing, the U.S. Army supported a series of tests at Porton Down in the United Kingdom to demonstrate the usefulness of the CDC for operations in the United States. These tests included modifications of the system to enhance DE, to improve worker safety, to improve productivity, and to minimize any possibility for escape of agent vapors. 

Phase II demonstration/validation testing was conducted at Porton Down in 2004 (Bixler, 2005). The tests included detonation of two munitions per shot, a key point in establishing the potential throughput of the CDC. Extensive computer control and safety interlocks were added to regulate contact of any agent vapors with the treatment system and to remove any opportunity for a detonation to occur before the complete system is ready for operations. 

Another series of tests at Porton Down was scheduled for early 2006. A major goal of these demonstrations was to demonstrate the potential throughput of the TC-60 CDC. Modeling indicates that 22 shots (up to 40 munitions)9 can be conducted in a 10-hour shift (DeMil International, 2005a). 

The technology was tested at Porton Down in 2003 with agent. Available results indicate a 99 percent destruction of HD within 6 hours using a system containing 6.42 m2 of Ti02 and continuous ultraviolet (UV) energy of 24 watts. The same system yielded 99.987 percent destruction of HD after 24 hours. To date, this is the only known photocatalytic system tested for chemical agent destruction. 

Is the technology in use for any type of material, even non-CWM related internationally Yes. Used in Belgium to destroy over 2,000 projectiles containing Clark II agent. Yes. Used in Japan to destroy 500 bombs containing Clark I and II and 100 bombs containing a 50 50 mix of L and H. Yes. Static kilns have been used in several countries to destroy conventional munitions. Yes, it has destroyed several types of munition in testing at Porton Down, U.K. 

Overall Employed routinely in Belgium for recovered CWM tested extensively at Porton Down. Mature process has been used but only for one application in Japan. Very well engineered designed specifically for chemical munition destruction. Mature, well-engineered process for conventional munitions has demonstrated ability to destroy agent and is acquiring experience with chemical weapons, both inert and containing explosives. Fully mature. 

Porton Down made use of this logic between 1919 and 1939 to carry out a mass of offensive research, developing gas grenades and hand contamination bombs a toxic air smoke bomb charged with a new arsenic codenamed D M was tested anti-tank weapons were produced and Porton developed an aircraft spray tank capable of dispersing mustard gas from a height of 15,000 feet. At the same time the weapons of the First World War — the Livens Projector, the mortar, the chemical shell and even the cylinder - were all modified and improved. 

Over the coming years the scientists at Camp Detrick and Porton Down would investigate almost every known fatal disease. While most would not be tested on humans, the Western researchers were nevertheless able to base much of their work upon a compendium of case studies which supposedly did not exist. 

Porton Down claimed that Maddison had been abnormally sensitive to nerve gas, but even so, work with human volunteers stopped for six months while a government inquiry scrutinized the way in which young volunteers were being used at Porton. The investigation concluded that Maddison s death had been an unfortunate accident, and that the tests should continue. The inquiry had been impressed to learn that the servicemen who volunteered to test nerve gas received no extra pay or other rewards for standing in the gas chambers. 

By the middle of the war, the Nazis had acquired a vast, hidden armoury of chemical weapons. Despite all the other burdens involved in fighting the war, the Wehrmacht still found hundreds of millions of marks to pump into the production and testing of poison gas. According to a team of experts from Porton Down who investigated the German chemical warfare programme after the war ... 

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