A team led by Bechtel National, Inc.
and Parsons Infrastructure & Technology,
Inc. will design, build, systemize, test, operate and close a plant to safely destroy the chemical weapons
stockpile at Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. The 15,000-acre
depot stores mustard and nerve agent in projectiles and rockets. Our design
concept for the pilot plant maximizes the use of existing designs and unit
operations from other successful chemical demilitarization facilities.
Approximately 80% of the design developed for the Pueblo Chemical Agent
Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado, also being managed by Bechtel, is
directly applicable to the unit operations selected for the Blue Grass
stockpile.
The process chosen by the U.S. Department of Defense as the method of
destruction - neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation -
involves several steps:
Disassembling the munitions using modified reverse assembly
Removing the chemical agent and energetics from projectiles and
rockets
Neutralizing the agent and energetics through hydrolysis
Destroying the energetics and agent hydrolysates in supercritical
water oxidation,where they are subjected to very high temperature and
pressure and break down into carbon dioxide, water, and salts
Decontaminating the projectile and munitions bodies
Treating the secondary wastes
Key
features include:
Modular design
Single agent and energetic processing
Building 3D model to minimize construction interferences
Collaboration with the Pueblo, Colorado chemical demilitarization
facility
Key
features include: