FRANCIS W. HOLM 7102 Meadow Lane, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 The North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sponsored an Advanced Research
Workshop (ARW) in Prague, Czech Republic, on 1-2 July 1996, to collect
and study information on mobile alternative and supplemental
demilitarization technologies and to report these fmdings. The mobile,
or transportable, technologies identified for assessment at the workshop
are alternatives to incineration technology for destruction of
munitions, chemical warfare agent, and associated materials and debris.
Although the discussion focused on the treatment of metal parts and
explosive or energetic material, requirements for decontamination of
other materials were discussed. The mobile alternative technologies are
grouped into three categories based on process bulk operating
temperature: low (0-200 C), medium (200-600 C), and high (600- 3,500 C).
Reaction types considered include hydrolysis, biodegradation,
electrochemical oxidation, gas-phase high-temperature reduction, stearn
reforming, gasification, sulfur reactions, solvated electron chemistry,
sodium reactions, supercritical water oxidation, wet air oxidation, and
plasma torch technology. These categories represent a broad spectrum of
processes, some of which have been studied only in the laboratory and
some of which are in commercial use for destruction of hazardous and
toxic wastes. Some technologies have been developed and used for
specific commercial applications; however, in all cases, research,
development, test, and evaluation (RDT &E) is necessary to assure that
each technology application is effective for destroying chemical warfare
materiel.