The Baseline Incineration Program

DoD should select a program manager who was not and never had been associated with the baseline incineration program. 

THE STOCKPILE DESTRUCTION PROGRAM The Baseline Incineration Program... 

Concurrent with the beginning of construction of the baseline incineration facility at JACADS in 1987, the Army requested that the National Research Council (NRC) review and evaluate the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP) and provide scientific and technical advice and counsel. The NRC established the standing Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee), one of whose early reports was a study of operational verification testing at JACADS prior to the start of agent disposal operations. In the intervening years, the Stockpile Committee produced 27 reports on various aspects of the CSDP. ... 

In 1996, persuaded by public opposition in Lexington, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado, Congress enacted Public Law 104-201, which instructed the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct an assessment of the chemical demilitarization program for destruction of assembled chemical munitions and of the alternative demilitarization technologies and processes (other than incineration) that could be used for the destruction of the lethal chemical agents that are associated with these munitions. In response, the Army established the program manager for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (PMACWA). In Public Law 104-208, the PMACWA was required to identify and demonstrate not less than two alternatives to the baseline incineration process for the demilitarization of assembled... 

In 1987, the NRC Committee on the Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee) was formed to advise the CSDP. Construction and systemization (operational testing) of the first fully integrated baseline incineration system, the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS), was completed in June 1990... 

On the other hand, incineration is employed on a large scale in the stockpile program. The U.S. Army s baseline incineration system includes a process for reverse assembly (disassembly) of the stored munitions and collection of the contained agent. As such, it constitutes a complete munition processing system for munitions that have been properly stored. Agent drained from these munitions is sent to a liquid incinerator for destruction, while energetics and munition bodies are sent to separate furnaces for destruction or decontamination. This baseline system is now in use at... 

The ACW II Committee advises the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on its ACWA Program. Since 1997, the ACW II Committee and its predecessor (the ACW I Committee) have followed the development of several alternative (to incineration) technologies for the demilitarization of assembled chemical weapons. In parallel with this modified baseline process report, the ACW II Committee is preparing a report to evaluate the two ACWA technologies being considered for Pueblo. 

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