Talk:Destruction of chemical weapons in the United States

Belgium
In former battlefields of World War I in Belgium ammunition is still found, a century after the end of the war. Ammunition is disposed of at DOVO (Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal), Poelkapelle, Belgium. Conventional shells are blown up (twice daily, at 11 am and 16 pm, april to october). Chemical ammunition is dismantled. According to the website of DOVO, shells to be dismantled are first identified: x-rays,   neutron activation analysis. Shells are then opened by drilling or milling the casing - remotely, in a closed chamber, under partial vacuum, with the air being filtered and after deep-freezing the shell. Some shells have the chemicals embedded in explosive; these are dismantled using a DAVINCH "Contained Detonating Chamber". See the presentation below for details.

About 150 tons of ammunition is found each year, mainly by farmers who leave the ammunition by the roadside for the army to pick it up, the "iron harvest". ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World-war-one-belgium-iron-harvest-telegraphpole.redvers.jpg ) About 300 tons of ammunition is disposed of each year. More ammunition is disposed of than found because there are stockpiles of ammunition found before the dismantling plant was operational. A pilot plant was set up in 1995; the dismantling plant is fully up and running since 2000; the 10.000th shell was dismantled in 2005.

Another DAVINCH "Contained Detonating Chamber" is in Kanda, Kyushyu, Japan. In Germany there's "Gesellschaft zur Entsorgung chemischer Kampfstoffe mbh", (http://www.geka-munster.de/index.php?id=7 ). Perhaps someone with knowledge of Japanese or German can provide more information about these installations.

References (some in Dutch: use Google translate)
 * Belgian army ordnance disposal website : http://www.mil.be/armycomp/units/index.asp?LAN=nl&FILE=&ID=559&PAGE=3&MENU=602
 * Pictures: http://www.mil.be/armycomp/gall/index.asp?LAN=nl&FILE=gall&ID=275314&IDS=1
 * Presentation about Contained Detonating Chamber: http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//PubFullText/RTO/TR/RTO-TR-AVT-115///TR-AVT-115-ANN-B-Files/TR-AVT-115-ANN-B-18.pdf
 * Overview of DOVO activities, (in English, brief) http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2011GlobalExplosive/Moerman.pdf (in Dutch, more extensive): http://www.wo1.be/ned/geschiedenis/gastbijdragen/2006/Sanering%20Slagvelden%20door%20Dovo.pdf  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.228.71.21 (talk) 07:08, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

Needs help
I'm going to try to clean this up later, but there are some serious issues here. The airborne exposure limits reflect, for the most part, the values in place before new guidance was promulgated by the CDC in 2003/2004 and subsequently adopted by the Army (and that's just the USA). There are numerous other inaccuracies and misconceptions, including in the physiology of nerve agent response and in the criteria / procedures for decontamination of metal parts (i.e., munition casings). In the meantime, if you're referencing this to write a report or something, you'll want to go to AR 385-61 or explore the websites of the Chemical Materials Activity (nee Agency) or PMO Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA). BryanHolland (talk) 14:35, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

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