Decontamination of Explosives-Contaminated Range Scrap Using A Transportable Hot Gas Decontamination (HGD) System: Cost & Performance Report

摘要

The Department of Defense (DoD) has numerous target, bombing, test, and firing ranges that have accumulated a substantial amount of recyclable scrap metal in the form of range residue. This scrap metal includes practice bombs, expended artillery, small arms and mortar projectiles, aircraft bombs and missiles, rockets and rocket motors, hard targets, grenades, incendiary devices, experimental items, demolition devices, and other materials fired on or upon a military range. This material is collected in range sweeps and removal operations at active ranges, and unexploded ordnance (UXO) removal operations at Closed, Transferred, and Transferring (CTT) sites. Testing performed during this demonstration revealed that these items often have explosives residue after detonation. Explosive incidents involving scrap metal from training and firing ranges have occurred over the years and recently have come under close scrutiny. A safe, environmentally conscious alternative to decontaminate firing range scrap is a low-temperature thermal desorption process called the hot gas decontamination (HGD) technology developed by the U.S. Army Environmental Center (AEC). The HGD technology uses controlled heat to volatilize and thermally decompose the explosives contamination. A low-cost HGD process configuration was demonstrated in which the scrap metal was placed in piles and covered with an insulated thermal blanket. A propane-fired portable burner injected heat at a controlled rate to meet the time and temperature criteria of up to 600oF for up to a 6-hour holding time, to reach a decontamination level. Range residue had not previously been decontaminated in this manner to date.