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Strategies & Market Trends : CXI-Commodore Environmental -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lawrence Burg who wrote (1693)	10/19/1999 8:24:00 AM
From: hcm1943	Respond to of 1755

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

To: Lawrence Burg who wrote (1693)	10/26/1999 2:18:00 PM
From: hcm1943	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1755

for immediate release: Thursday October 21, 1999 ARMY REPORTS CHEMICAL WEAPONS STOCKPILE IS STABLE: NUMBER OF LEAKERS NOT INCREASING; UNDERMINES KEY ARGUMENT FOR INCINERATION An internal U.S. Army Soldier, Biological and Chemical Command (SBCCOM) report, made public for the first time today, "shows that the rush to incinerate chemical weapons is based on false arguments," according to those who advocate non-smokestack technologies for destruction. The newly acquired document, an SBCCOM "Information Paper" titled "Chemical Stockpile Storage Stability Status" dated October 8, 1999, concludes "there is no apparent trend toward increased or decreased leak rates in the chemical stockpile." For years the Army's Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD) has claimed that a growing risk of nerve gas leakage, particularly from spontaneous explosion of stored M55 rockets or aging agent containers, mandated rapid incineration and prohibited deploying advanced technologies. PMCD has proclaimed the M-55 rockets to be the most risk-significant item in the U.S. stockpile and has defended its 1984 decision to use incineration in large part based on the danger posed by storing these munitions. For example in July 1995 PMCD is quoted in an Arkansas paper as saying, "There are 400,000 M-55 chemical rockets stored around the country, and statistically one could go off at anytime." And in an Alabama paper in July, 1995 another PMCD official is quoted as saying, "Most of the M-55s are about 30 years old, and because they combine the chemical agents with the propellant, there is a risk of spontaneous explosion." "Now the branch of the Army responsible for storage, SBCCOM, has documented in writing that these fundamental assumptions of PMCD's incineration program are false," explained Craig Williams, national spokesman for the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG). "There is ample time to implement advanced agent destruction technologies which pose less threat to human health and the environment." The SBCCOM report specifically addresses concerns about the M55 rockets observing, "The results indicate that normally stored (that is, non-leaking rockets and undetected/unoverpacked leaking rockets) M55 rockets can dissipate sufficient heat to prevent autoignition. The results for overpacked leaking M55 rockets indicate that the autoignition probability is low but cannot be ruled out." Williams pointed out that the overpacked rockets have been segregated from the rest of the stockpile to eliminate the risk within the igloos where large numbers of "normally stored" rockets reside. As for ton containers filled with the agent HD or "mustard," which incineration advocates claimed were at risk from drain plug leakage, SBCCOM's Report said, "There was corrosion noted on some of the tested plugs however there were more than sufficient threads engaged to preclude any cause for concern. The survey indicates no increasing trend in leakers or severe corrosion problem, hence the recommendation was made to maintain the current visual surveillance program." CWWG's Williams concluded, "At last the facts have caught up with PMCD's rhetoric. Now everyone knows that their 'sky is falling' campaign about storage risk is designed to build support for chemical weapons incineration based on fear rather than be honest with communities about risks." The Chemical Weapons Working Group is a coalition of groups representing communities where the nation's nerve and mustard agent arsenal is stored. CWWG has long called for adoption of non-incineration technologies, such as those already demonstrated and currently being demonstrated under the Congressionally mandated Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.