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REQUIREMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 92 test work will be performed in university, national, or commercial development laboratories not currently equipped to work with agent. 3 Note that the greatest part of facility costs is accounted for by the frontend reverse assembly function and related safety concerns. The costs for the actual destruction process equipment are a relatively small part of total system costs. Thus, the functional capability of any unit process to destroy chemical agent, without introducing new waste problems, is likely to be much more important than the equipment costs. Some potential alternative technologies would require the use of large amounts of energy, such as for the production of a plasma arc and the heat to dry salts. These energy requirements are very important to the economic viability of other waste disposal methods when disposal costs are measured in terms of a few dollars per pound. However, the cost for the total program to destroy chemical agents amounts to about $120 per pound (or $6 billion to destroy 25,000 tons). Thus, energy costs will be much less important than the capability to destroy agent. Finally, it is possible that useful by-products from chemical weapons disposal facilities could be collected and sold to reduce program costs. The committee believes this consideration to be of secondary importance: buyers would not pay normal market prices because of potential liability and public perception problems, and the income generated would at most pay only for the disposal of these specific materials, allowing for no profit. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES The committee evaluated potential alternative technologies on the basis of development status, functional performance, and engineering factors.4 Development status. As discussed previously, level of development is an important criterion in this technology assessment. Also of importance is whether a technology has ever been applied to chemical agent. Categories used in the committee's analysis are the following: 3 As for estimates of development time, the Army has suggested a generic approach to estimates of program costs (Baronian, 1992a,b). This Army approach assumes the use of an already well-developed technology, further laboratory and pilot testing at the CAMDS facility, no demonstration, and construction of full-scale destruction facilities. The Army estimate is approximately $880 million dollars but does not include savings from elimination of the baseline technology. It is not specific to any given technology. 4 In some cases, where information is common to closely related technologies or where data are not available, only a summary statement may be made without reference to each technology developer listed in Appendix E.
REQUIREMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 93 ⢠concept only: adequate data base does not exist; ⢠laboratory stage: initial data encouraging but not complete; ⢠pilot plant stage: small plant operative with data collected for scale-up; ⢠in commercial operation for similar applications; and ⢠prior experience in destroying one or more agents. Functional performance. It is important to assess a technology's capability to perform one or more of the functional steps needed to destroy chemical weapons. ⢠treatment capability and attributes (for each chemical agent)âThe assessment must include consideration of the ability to treat liquid agent, metal parts, propellants and explosives, dunnage, and air streams. It also must determine the technology's likely level of agent destruction (whether it is useful for pretreatment or for other degrees of destruction). ⢠waste treatment requirements-Each technology should be assessed for the likely solid, liquid, and gaseous waste streams it would generate and the requirements for further treatment. Engineering factors. Various engineering factors must be considered that may significantly influence the effectiveness of a technology, its potential for failure in development, and its safety or hazard potential under operation. Such engineering factors include pressure, temperature, corrosion, stability of operation (rate, control), explosion potential, inventory requirements, and potential for human error during operations.
