High-pressure ammonia and abrasive amonia jets were used for cutting and washout of chemical rockets: M60 training and M61 practice. These are simulants for chemical rocket M55. A containment pressure vessel was built to cut these rockets, wash them out, and recycle ammonia. The rocket, in a fiberglass casing, is loaded in a rotary chuck and stationary cutting/piercing nozzles were used to cut and drill through the rocket. It was found that intensifier-based pumps are more suitable for this application than direct drive pumps. The cutting/washout system was integrated by Teledyne-Commodore at Redstone Arsenal, with a complete chemical destruction process usign alkali metals dissolved in anhydrous ammonia to form the aggressive Solvated Electron Technology (SET~(TM)) solution. The abrasive ammonia jets performed well at Redstone for cutting the rocket metal shell (aluminum and steel) casing as well as the outside fiberglass case. A washout ammonia jet lance has also been found to completely washout the simulant materials. Over 20 rockets were successfully cut and washed out without any incidents. It was concluded that the use of anhydrous ammonia has numerous advantages over conventional water for chemical weapon demilitarization applications.
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