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REQUIREMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION TECHNOLOGIES 83 held rockets that leaked and metal parts that contacted agent but have been decontaminated and verified by a monitor not to have agent. Worker contact with 3X materials is allowed under normal working circumstances, but release of these materials to the public for uncontrolled access or use is not allowed. (Some 3X waste salts and 3X dunnage are currently transported to hazardous waste sites for controlled landfill, i.e., a disposal method that presumably precludes public access and makes 5X treatment unnecessary.) ⢠Level 5X is fully decontaminated material with no detectable residual contamination that has had heat treatment of at least 1000°F for at least 15 minutes. 5X material can be released to the public for uncontrolled access or use. The high-temperature treatment is required to destroy any residual agent that may be inaccessible to chemical treatment. To produce solid waste meeting the current 5X standard, any alternative technology would have to treat contaminated solids with 1000°F for 15 minutes. This requirement precludes several low-temperature alternative technologies. Consequently, the committee has assumed the acceptability of adding ''or equivalent'' to allow other treatment processes to be considered for meeting the 5X requirement. The equivalent could be, for example, treatment at a higher temperature for a shorter time. The "equivalent" capability would still have to be demonstrated, and the Army's self-imposed regulation would need to be changed to reflect the new conditions. For decontamination purposes, the Army is considering a new alternative 5X standard for the destroying GA and GB nerve agents associated with local accidents, the resulting contamination, and the reoccupation of related housing. This alternative would require that any residual material be subjected to appropriate tests (not yet defined) to show that the air over the sample has an agent concentration of less than 3 ng/m3 for 72 hours, that is, meets the air quality standard for the general population. However, the alternative standard would not apply to mustard agent (HD), because mustard is believed to be carcinogenic and no lower threshold (below which damage will not occur) has been established. The new standard is not intended to be applied to the primary operations at agent destruction facilities. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS IN ASSESSING UNTESTED ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES Most potential alternative technologies have not been tested with the chemical warfare agents in the U.S. stockpile. It is therefore necessary to judge whether such technologies will likely meet the very stringent destruction requirements when tested. An initial judgment can be made about a technology's probable success in destroying bulk chemical agent by considering the technology's success in destroying similar bulk chemicals. A
