Standard Chemical Maintenance Facility

Concept Design Criteria for Standard Chemical Maintenance Facility... 

Figure 2. Standard chemical maintenance facility Factors affecting design.

The total estimated cost for tailored standard chemical maintenance facilities constructed at each installation is 193,700,000 with one explosive wing at Anniston or 204,700,000 for two explosive wings at Anniston. 

With limited facilities currently available for chemical maintenance, the DARCOM Ammunition Center, Savanna, IL, at the direction of the US Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command, was tasked to develop a concept design for a Standard Maintenance Facility for Toxic Chemical Munitions. 

The development of the standard maintenance facility design as presented (Figure 1) concludes that both operational and environmental requirements can be accommodated. It satisfies a real need for a facility that will provide a safe and productive environment for the maintenance of toxic chemical munitions. Also that safety, security, and environmental criteria are stringent but the facility design as presented will comply with those known requi rements. 

The transportation restrictions prohibiting the movement of toxic chemical munitions together with establishing that most maintenance and surveillance requirements are typically the same at storage installations, resulted in developing a standard modular facility design which could be sited at more than one installation. 

Figure 11. Standard facility for maintenance, preservation and packaging, surveillance and assembly of chemical munitions...

One problem the Johnston Atoll facility did experience was some schedule slippage because of maintenance downtime. This was due to technical and mechanical problems with various equipment and the need for more training of certain personnel. These problems did not affect the Army s ability to destroy or decontaminate chemical weapons within EPA s standards—-just the rate at which destruction occurred. 

While a storage facility remains closed for any movement of chemical weapons out of the facility other than their removal for destruction, a State Party may continue at the facility standard maintenance activities, including standard maintenance of chemical weapons safety monitoring and physical security activities and preparation of chemical weapons for destruction. 

A State Party may carry out standard maintenance activities at chemical weapons production facilities only for safety reasons, including visual inspection, preventive maintenance, and routine repairs. 

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