Teledyne-Commodore Announces U.S.
Army Demonstration Project
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Teledyne-Commodore, LLC has been notified that the U.S.
Army intends to demonstrate Teledyne-Commodore's technology for testing under the Assembled
Chemical Weapons Assessment Program (ACWA). Testing Teledyne-Commodore's technology was
delayed last year due to Army funding limitations. The Teledyne-Commodore ''Solvated Electron
Technology'' (SETa) process is one of six technologies that are expected to be demonstrated under the
complete ACWA Program. Under the new ACWA demonstration timeline, Teledyne-Commodore expects
to receive funding beginning in 1999 to demonstrate its SET(TM) system.
The ACWA program is designed to identify alternative technologies to the current baseline incineration
process for the demilitarization of chemical weapons. Further information on ACWA is available at
dialogue.pmacwa.org.
Teledyne-Commodore previously announced that tests in government-approved surety laboratories,
neutralized all components of assembled weapons, such as chemical agents, propellants, and explosives
to greater than the US Army's requirement of 99.9999% destruction. The SET(TM) process is designed
to convert toxic chemicals into environmentally safe salts without incineration. Materials, such as toxic
chlorine gas, are then reduced to common sodium chloride table salt. Tests indicate that the SET(TM)
process was also effective in decontaminating metal casings and other waste products.
Last year, Teledyne-Commodore successfully tested a full scale, integrated SET(TM) pilot plant at the US
Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. The SET(TM) system integrated with the ammonia fluid jet
was successfully used to destroy live rockets containing propellant, explosive, chemical agent stimulant,
and pyrotechnic materials. Since May 1997, Teledyne-Commodore has developed, tested and patented
two additional advanced processes. These processes are the ammonia fluid jet cutting and ammonia fluid
jet washout systems for chemical and conventional weapons. The fluid jet technologies are designed to
allow high-speed munitions accessing, washout, and dissolving of both chemical agents and energetic
materials. These two technologies use high- pressure ammonia, at pressures up to 50,000 psi, to form a
high velocity fluid jet that can safely cut both steel and high explosives. The ammonia fluid jets were
successfully tested and demonstrated effective on live munitions at Redstone Arsenal in May 1998.
Teledyne-Commodore, LLC is a joint venture of Teledyne Brown Engineering, an operating company in
the aerospace and electronics segment of Allegheny Teledyne Incorporated (NYSE: ALT - news) and
Commodore Applied Technologies Inc. (Amex: CXI - news, CXI.WS - news). Formed in August 1996,
Teledyne-Commodore employs Commodore's proprietary and patented SET(TM) process, a non-thermal
chemical process designed to work at ambient temperatures and low pressures, as well as
Teledyne-Commodore's proprietary ammonia fluid jet technologies.
SOURCE: Teledyne-Commodore, LLC |
