Analysis of Engineering Design Studies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemica l Weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot der on the

punch end through two ports from t he sidewall of the cylinder rod to maximize the cleaning action of the steam or water. An overhead roller is used on the first feed conveyor to ensure that cons tant pressure is applied to the rocket while it is being driven through the rota ting tube cutter and the punch-and-drain station. This roller is located between the rotating tube cutter and the first clamp assembly of the punch-and-drain st ation. When processing GB agent rockets, low-pressure (~5 psig) saturated steam at less than 228F (109C) (Eco Logic, 2001a) is fed through the vent punch to rinse out any residual agent. The process steam discharged from the warhead is then p iped through a condensation system to ensure that all steam is fully condensed. After the warhead has been steamed out, it is rinsed with approximately one warh ead-volume (~1 gallon) of water. This condenses the steam vapor inside the warhe ad and assists in washing residue agent out of the warhead cavity. The rinse wat er, steam/condensate, and residual agent bypass the AQS and go to the agent coll ection system. After the agent is removed from the warhead and the warhead has b een steamed out, the rocket is rotated 90 degrees to minimize agent leakage from the punch holes. The rocket in its shipping/firing tube is moved to a cutting s tation, where it is cut into five sections. The first three cuts use a tube cutt er and remove (1) the fuze, (2) the burster, and (3) the warhead, leaving the mo tor casing and fin assembly. The fuze is fed via a dumping conveyor section into the COINS hopper. The fourth cut is done by a water jet cutter with garnet abra sive and is made just above the nozzle plate to separate the motor casing from t he fin assembly. These last two cuts, which remove the warhead and separate the motor casing from the fin assembly, also cut through the fiberglass shipping/fir ing tube. The Propellant Grinder M28 double base propellant removed from a rocke t by the RDM is sent to a propellant grinder to decrease the time required for h ydrolysis. The grinder is designed to receive a single 31-inch propellant grain from the RDM. Although antiresonance rods associated with the propellant grain s hould be removed at an earlier station within the RDM, the grinder will be desig ned to allow safe grinding of propellant and antiresonance rods, as well as coax ial igniter cables. The propellant is reduced to granules that will pass through a 1-inch screen before exiting the grinder. A constant water level is maintaine d inside the grinder hopper at all times, while the propellant is ground under w ater to prevent spark ignition and eliminate the potential for fires. Only one p ropellant grain will be processed at a time. To ensure that propellant does not enter into the shaft bearings, the seals are designed to be flooded with clean w ater to force any propellant away from the seals and bearings. Another safety fe ature is equipping the grinding rotor with an automatic reverse rotation feature to clear any jams that occur. To minimize impact initiation of the propellant, a low-speed grinder is used. To conserve the amount of water used in the grindin g system and to ensure that the correct ratio of water to propellant grain granu les is delivered to the storage tank, a series of two pinch valves will be used on the pipeline discharging from the grinder hopper. Since the specific gravity of the propellant is higher than that of water, the size-reduced propellant will settle on the bottom of the grinder discharge hopper. The first pinch valve wil l open, allowing the size-reduced propellant to settle in between the two pinch valves. (The propellant will displace any water in this space.) The volume of th e piping between the two pinch valves will be sized so that a ratio of 35 percen t by weight of propellant to water can be maintained. When the upper pinch valve is closed and the lower pinch valve is opened, only a propellant-water mixture containing 35 percent by weight propellant will be discharged to the propellant reactor tank. COINS The COINS process uses an overhead conveyor system that coll ects metal parts containing explosive energetics components (fuzes and bursters) into baskets that are moved through a tank containing a caustic bath that hydro lyzes the energetic materials in the metal parts. No propellant is sent to the C OINS. The Eco Logic EDP for Blue Grass uses two COINS troughs that operate in pa rallel (Eco Logic, 2001a). The COINS troughs are totally independent, and each h as its own airtight enclosure. The two troughs, each measuring approximately 11 feet wide by 20 feet long, are filled with 20 weight percent sodium hydroxide so

lution in which the baskets full of munition parts are sus-