“Destruction of Chemical Munitions at Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky – Final Environmental Impact Statement – Volume II – Appendix K” (see also “Volume I (Main Report and Appendices A-J)”) Public Law 99-145 and subsequent related legislation requires destruction of the U.S. stockpile of lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions. Furthermore, in 1993 an international treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), was signed by 65 nations, including the United States. The CWC, which set the deadline for completing destruction of chemical weapons as 10 years following ratification by the required number of nations, received the necessary ratifications on April 29,1997. Thus, the international deadline for destruction of chemical weapons is April 29, 2007. The Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program has prepared this Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) to assess the potential health and environmental impacts of the construction, operation, and closure of a facility to destroy the chemical agent and munitions stored at Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD), Kentucky. Four alternatives are addressed in this FEIS for possible use in destruction of the BGAD stockpile: (1) baseline incineration, which is currently in use by the Army at Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD), Utah and was used by the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) to destroy the entire stockpile on Johnston Atoll; (2) chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation, a developing technology that would be initially operated as a pilot test facility; (3) chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation and gas phase chemical reduction, a developing technology that would be initially operated as a pilot test facility; and (4) electrochemical oxidation, which is also under development and would be initially operated as a pilot test facility. The latter three alternatives have also been evaluated in a separate EIS prepared by the Army Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program (ACWA) as part of four chemical neutralization technologies being considered for pilot testing at BGAD and three other chemical munitions storage locations. The data and information obtained from testing and full-scale operation of the incineration technology, and available data and information from on-going studies of the technologies provided by ACWA are analyzed and compared to the extent possible in this FEIS.

“Destruction of Chemical Munitions at Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky – Final Environmental Impact Statement – Volume I (Main Report and Appendices A-J)” (see also “Volume II – Appendix K”) - Public Law 99-145 and subsequent related legislation requires destruction of the U.S. stockpile of lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions. Furthermore, in 1993 an international treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), was signed by 65 nations, including the United States. The CWC, which set the deadline for completing destruction of chemical weapons as 10 years following ratification by the required number of nations, received the necessary ratifications on April 29,1997. Thus, the international deadline for destruction of chemical weapons is April 29, 2007. The Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program has prepared this Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) to assess the potential health and environmental impacts of the construction, operation, and closure of a facility to destroy the chemical agent and munitions stored at Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD), Kentucky. Four alternatives are addressed in this FEIS for possible use in destruction of the BGAD stockpile: (1) baseline incineration, which is currently in use by the Army at Deseret Chemical Depot (DCD), Utah and was used by the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) to destroy the entire stockpile on Johnston Atoll; (2) chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation, a developing technology that would be initially operated as a pilot test facility; (3) chemical neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation and gas phase chemical reduction, a developing technology that would be initially operated as a pilot test facility; and (4) electrochemical oxidation, which is also under development and would be initially operated as a pilot test facility. The latter three alternatives have also been evaluated in a separate EIS prepared by the Army Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment Program (ACWA) as part of four chemical neutralization technologies being considered for pilot testing at BGAD and three other chemical munitions storage locations. The data and information obtained from testing and full-scale operation of the incineration technology, and available data and information from on-going studies of the technologies provided by ACWA are analyzed and compared to the extent possible in this FEIS.

The 1993 international treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and Public Law 99-145 require the U.S. to destroy its stockpile of lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions. The deadline for completing this is April 29, 2007. The purpose of this FEIS is " to assess the potential health and environmental impacts of the construction, operation and closure of a facility to destroy the chemical agent and munitions stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD)" in Richmond, Kentucky. Four alternatives are discussed involving incineration, neutralization and oxidation. The procedures of three alternatives involve using BGAD as a "pilot test facility" and have been evaluated in a separate EIS prepared by the Army's ACWA (Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment) Program.

The Army's ability to meet public and congressional demands to destroy expeditiously all of the U.S. declared chemical weapons would be enhanced by the selection and acquisition of appropriate explosive destruction technologies (EDTs) to augment the main technologies to be used to destroy the chemical weapons currently at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) in Kentucky and the Pueblo Chemical Depot (PCD) in Colorado. The Army is considering four EDTs for the destruction of chemical weapons: three from private sector vendors, and a fourth, Army-developed explosive destruction system (EDS). This book updates earlier evaluations of these technologies, as well as any other viable detonation technologies, based on several considerations including process maturity, process efficacy, process throughput, process safety, public and regulatory acceptability, and secondary waste issues, among others. It also provides detailed information on each of the requirements at BGAD and PCD and rates each of the existing suitable EDTs plus the Army's EDS with respect to how well it satisfies these requirements.

The United States manufactured significant quantities of chemical weapons during the Cold War and the years prior. Because the chemical weapons are aging, storage constitutes an ongoing risk to the facility workforces and to the communities nearby. In addition, the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty stipulates that the chemical weapons be destroyed. The United States has destroyed approximately 90 percent of the chemical weapons stockpile located at seven sites. As part of the effort to destroy its remaining stockpile, the Department of Defense is building the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant (BGCAPP) on the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD), near Richmond, Kentucky. The stockpile stored at BGAD consists of rockets and projectiles containing the nerve agents GB and VX and the blister agent mustard. Continued storage poses a risk to the BGAD workforce and the surrounding community because these munitions are several decades old and are developing leaks. Due to public opposition to the use of incineration to destroy the BGAD stockpile, Congress mandated that non- incineration technologies be identified for use at BGCAPP. As a result, the original BGCAPP design called for munitions to be drained of agent and then for the munition bodies to be washed out using high-pressure hot water. However as part of a larger package of modifications called Engineering Change Proposal 87 (ECP-87), the munition washout step was eliminated. Effects of the Deletion of Chemical Agent Washout on Operations at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant examines the impacts of this design change on operations at BGCAPP and makes recommendations to guide future decision making.

In 1993, the United States signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an international treaty outlawing the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. The chemical weapons stockpiles at five of the U.S. chemical weapons storage sites have now been destroyed. At those sites, the munitions were robotically opened and the chemical agent was removed, collected, and incinerated. One of the remaining sites with chemical weapons stockpiles is the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. In this case, caustic hydrolysis will be used to destroy the agents and energetics, resulting in a secondary waste stream known as hydrolysate. Review Criteria for Successful Treatment of Hydrolysate at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant develops criteria for successfully treating the hydrolysate, identifies systemization data that should factor into the criteria/decision process, suggests potential modifications to suggested treatment that would allow continued onsite processing, and assesses waste disposal procedures. This study further examines the possibility of delay or failure of the existing technology and examines possible alternatives to onsite treatment.

The United States is in the process of destroying its chemical weapons stockpile. In 1996, Congress mandated that DOD demonstrate and select alternative methods to incineration at the Blue Grass and Pueblo sites. The Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA) program was setup to oversee the development of these methods, and pilot plants were established at both sites. One of the new technologies being developed at the Blue Grass pilot plant are metal parts treaters (MPTs) to be used for the empty metal munitions cases. During recent testing, some issues arose with the MPTs that caused the ACWA to request a review by the NRC to investigate and determine their causes. This book presents a discussion of the MPT system; an assessment of the MPT testing activities; an analysis of thermal testing, modeling, and predicted throughput of the MPT; and an examination of the applicability of munitions treatment units under development at Pueblo for the Blue Grass pilot plant.

Because of concerns about incineration, the Department of Defense plans to use alternative means to destroy the chemical agent stockpiles at the Pueblo and Blue Grass facilities. The DOD contracted with Bechtel Parsons to design and operate pilot plants for this purpose. As part of the NRC efforts to assist the DOD with its chemical demilitarization efforts, the Department requested a review and assessment of the Bechtel designs for both plants. An earlier report presented an assessment of the Pueblo design. This report provides a review of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant based on review of data and information about the initial design and some intermediate design data. Among other topics, the report presents technical risk assessment issues, an analysis of delivery and disassembly operations and of agent destruction core processes, and an examination of waste treatment.