Warfare agents and munitions

Figure 1. Extracts from recommendations by National Academy of Sciences on disposal of chemical warfare agents and munitions...

Manley, R.G. 1997. UNSCOM s experience with chemical warfare agents and munitions in Iraq. Pp. 241-254 in The Challenge of Old Chemical Munitions and Toxic Armament Wastes. T. Stock and K. Lohs, eds. Oxford, England Oxford University Press. 

The United States has maintained a stockpile of highly toxic chemical warfare agents and munitions for more than half a century. These chemical agents are designed to be lethal upon exposure. Stored as components of aging weapons systems, they present a growing risk to surrounding communities. 

It became clear from the reports on the bilateral consultations that verification was proving the main obstacle. The first really detailed report on the progress of the bilateral talks was presented jointly to the CD in 1979 by the Soviet Union and United States following the tenth round of talks. It was clear from this that there were substantial areas of agreement - on the scope of a convention, on the proposal that when ratifying a convention States should declare their stockpiles and means of production of chemical warfare agents and munitions, and on the proposal that verification of stockpile destruction should be based on a combination of national... 

The Special Operations Forces Nonintrusive Detector and the Swept Frequency Acoustic Interferometry detector are portable, hand-held acoustic instruments developed specifically to enable rapid detection and identification of chemical warfare agents within munitions, railcars, ton containers, etc. 

National Research Council, Alternative Technologies for the Destruction of Chemical Agents and Munitions, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1993. National Research Council, Review of Acute Human-Toxicity Estimates for Selected Chemical-Warfare Agents, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1997. National Research Council, Toxicity of Military Smokes and Obscurants, Vol. 1, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1997. 

The United States and other signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)i have committed to destroying all declared chemical warfare materiel (CWM) by April 29,2001 This materiel includes both stockpile materiel (all chemical agents and munitions available for use on the battlefield and stored at eight locations in the continental... 

Lohs K, Stock T (1997) Characteristics of chemical warfare agents and toxic armament wastes. In Lohs K, Stock T (eds) The challenge of old chemical munitions and their armament wastes, chap. 2. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 27... 

The common nerve agents that are encountered in chemical warfare agent-filled munitions are isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate (GB or sarin), pinacolyl methylphosphonofluoridate (GD or soman), and O-ethyl, S-(N,N-diisopropyl)aminoethyl methylphosphonothio-late (VX). These compounds are acutely toxic, with median lethal dose (LD50) values on the order of tens of micrograms per kilogram for humans, which make detection of trace quantities extremely important, and also render them difficult to handle in conducting analytical experiments. Given this limitation, the small size and ease of operation are favorable attributes of the... 

My final example of gamma spectrometry in pursuit of a safer world is an example of prompt gamma-ray spectrometry. PINS (Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectrometry) was developed for the on-site analysis of non-nuclear munitions to identify their contents, looking for chemical warfare agents and high explosives, to help suitable destruction processes to be chosen. 

Iraq claims that all biological agents and munitions were unilaterally destroyed after the GulfWar. However, Iraq s record of misrepresentation and the lack of documentation to support these claims leave the status of Iraqi biological warfare stockpile in doubt. 

Chemical Warfare All aspects of military operations involving the use of lethal munitions/agents and warning and protective measures associated with such offensive operations. 

Uhe stockpile (the subject of the Amy s Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program) consists of (1) bulk containers of nerve and blister agents and (2) munitions, including rockets, mines, bombs, projectiles, and spray tanks, loaded with nerve or blister agents. Buried chemical warfare materiel, recovered chemical warfare materiel, binary weapons (in which two nonlethal components are mixed after firing to yield a lethal nerve agent), former production facilities, and miscellaneous chemical warfare materiel are not included in the stockpile. The disposition of these five classes of materials is the subject of a separate Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Pro-... 

O. 1. Optun, Characterisation of a munition grade Lewisite mixture by GC-MS, LC-ESI-MS/MS and NMR, Proceedings of the 2nd Mass Spectrometry Conference Applied to Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, Warwick, 14-17 April, 38. 

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