Air Monitoring Equipment for CW Destruction Facilities with Special Emphasis on OCW Destruction

Abstract

The required performance of chemical agent vapour monitoring equipment installed in CW destruction facilities has to be in line with the actual magnitude of the agent vapour hazard encountered during the destruction processes (Fig. 1). For example, the associated vapour hazard generally will decrease when switching from handling of leaky bulk containers with neat agent to the dismantling of so-called Old Chemical Weapons (OCW) (Fig. 2) containing decomposed agent mostly; on the other hand the challenges to agent vapour monitoring equipment may increase when going into the same direction, as especially in the case of OCW, agent degradation products often affecting the proper instrument response and agent identification, have to be taken into account while air monitoring. For illustration purposes, Figs. 3–6 display several types of chemical agent fillings most likely to be handled in CW/OCW destruction facilities.