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Suggested Citation:"ATTACHMENT A STATEMENT OF TASK." National Research Council. 2009. Disposal of Legacy Nerve Agent GA and Lewisite Stocks at Deseret Chemical Depot: Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12763.
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Page 23

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ATTACHMENT A STATEMENT OF TASK The program to destroy the United States stockpile of chemical weapons has been operational for nearly two decades. During that time, the Army’s Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) (and predecessor PMCD) have constructed 7 disposal facilities. These facilities have destroyed all of the nerve agents GB and VX held at the storage sites adjacent to each disposal facility and are now in the process of, or continuing, the destruction of mustard agent stored in bulk containers or munitions. Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD), in Utah, originally had the largest repository of chemical agent stocks and munitions, approximately 44 percent of the entire U.S. inventory. DCD also was the site where four ton containers (~ 2 U.S. tons) of legacy nerve agent GA from World War II came to be stored. Also stored at DCD from similar legacy circumstances were 10 ton containers (~ 13 U.S. tons) of the blister agent and lung irritant, lewisite, along with an additional 10 ton containers of possible lewisite residues. The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF) Systems Contractor (SC) has recently been tasked with disposal of these materials. These materials lie outside the destruction schedule set for the TOCDF at DCD, where the focus continues to be the destruction of the remaining much larger quantities of mustard agent as it was for the large quantities of nerve agents GB and VX that have already been destroyed. Consequently, the TOCDF SC is developing an ancillary process to be co-located at DCD by which to destroy the GA and lewisite. As of December 2008, this process was at the 10 percent design stage. The National Research Council has been requested to examine and comment on the issues surrounding this initiative. The NRC will establish a committee to:  Examine the process design and procedural steps to be used for treating GA and lewisite at the Deseret Chemical Depot;  Provide an assessment of the process design which includes a new incinerator and associated pollution abatement system to be tailored to the requirements for treating the GA and lewisite;  Provide an assessment of the process design to determine the system's ability to reduce arsenic and mercury emissions to within the Maximum Achievable Controls Technology (MACT) new source regulatory limits;  Produce a report covering the topics listed above. -23-

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The National Research Council of the National Academies established a study committee to assess the disposal of stocks of legacy nerve agent GA and lewisite at Deseret Chemical Depot. Specifically, the Committee on Disposal of Legacy Nerve Agent GA and Lewisite Stocks at Deseret Chemical Depot reviewed information provided to it on the 50 percent design of the Area Ten Liquid Incinerator (ATLIC) facility.

The committee focused on differences between the process design being used for the ATLIC facility and those used at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF), which has operated successfully for over a decade in campaigns to destroy nerve agents GB and VX and mustard agent. This letter report provides the technical information necessary to support the general and specific findings and recommendations of the committee.

This analysis examines the process design and procedural steps to be used for treating GA and lewisite at the Deseret Chemical Depot; provides an assessment of the process design which includes a new incinerator and associated pollution abatement system to be tailored to the requirements for treating the GA and lewisite; and provides an assessment of the process design to determine the system's ability to reduce arsenic and mercury emissions to within the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) new source regulatory limits.

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