RECOVERED OLD ARSENICAL AND 'MUSTARD' MUNITIONS IN GERMANY

摘要

In Germany a well-organized, well-structurized technical system exists for the disposal of CW-related remnants from two World Wars. The installations involved have been centralized in the Munster region in the north of the country. The munition items can be manipulated safely in a dismantling facility in order to separate the CW agents from the other fillings for further destruction. A CW agent incineration plant has been in function since 1980. It serves for the thermal combustion of liquid (and viscous) CW agents as well as for the disposal of different types of waste from dismantling and decontamination activities. A second facility for incineration, preceded by soil washing, is under construction. This plant, which will be ready about 1998, is designed for the disposal of solid CW agents and mixtures of CW agents with explosives. Its main task, however, will be the remediation of soil with warfare-related contaminants, primarily arsenicals and their degradation products. The processing of old chemical munitions and their fillings is characterized by a large diversity of small but all the more important technical steps. Improvements are possible and desired in a diversity of fields, such as automation of mechanical operations, improvement of combustion technology, and development of self-operating surveillance systems. Whilst the actual quantity, in tons, of CW agent to be destroyed is relatively small, an unusually high safety standard is required. That is why CW agent disposal is rather expensive in comparison to other areas of chemical engineering.