Company Press Release
SOURCE: Teledyne-Commodore, LLC
Teledyne-Commodore Announces New Chemical Weapons Demilitarization Process
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Teledyne-Commodore, LLC announced today that it has filed patent applications for its proprietary ammonia fluid jet cutting process.
In tests at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal here, the ammonia fluid jet cutting process opened rockets containing energetic materials (fuses, explosives, and propellant). In the tests, the process was highly efficient and represented a first in using ammonia as a cutting fluid.
''We believe that the successful tests mark a genuine breakthrough in handling chemical weapons and in bringing safer non-thermal chemical weapons demilitarization into existence,'' said Gerald G. Watson, Teledyne-Commodore's President & CEO.
Teledyne-Commodore has been notified by the Army's Chemical and Biological Defense Command that it has been selected for the next phase of the Army's search for an alternative technology to incineration. Funding is expected in June 1998 to complete the demonstration testing for the Army's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment program.
Teledyne-Commodore's chemical weapons demilitarization system utilizes Commodore's proprietary Solvated Electron Technology (SET(TM)) process, a non-thermal chemical process that operates at ambient temperatures. In February 1997, the company announced that, in tests at government-licensed surety laboratories, the SET process had neutralized the components of assembled chemical weapons -- the propellants, explosives, chemical agents, and shell casings and/or dunnage.
''The Teledyne-Commodore ammonia fluid jet cutting process is intended as a safe means to open corroded and deteriorated chemical munitions,'' said Watson. ''We believe this development is significant in that the process combines ammonia fluid jet cutting, explosives washout, and solvated electron technology into an integrated demilitarization system capable of handling known munitions and agents in the stockpile.''
Teledyne-Commodore, a 50-50 joint venture of Teledyne Environmental, Inc., a subsidiary of Allegheny Teledyne Incorporated (NYSE: ALT - news) and Commodore Applied Technologies, Inc. (Amex: CXI - news), has been selected to continue in the $40 million Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program, which was funded by Congress in 1996 to find at least two alternative technologies to incineration for chemical weapons demilitarization.
SOURCE: Teledyne-Commodore, LLC |
