Reactive Chemical Systems for Environmental Management
Abstract
Unwanted or broken articles overflow in U.S. dumps and landfills or are left to mar the countryside. On military training ranges or former war zones, where duds and partially functioned ordnance have been abandoned, they are a menace to personnel, military and civilian, and a sourceof environmental contamination. This short-term innovative research (STIR) investigated two ways to alleviate this problem. Both are based on the premise that it may be possible to embed species in the munitions at their inception that can be triggered upon demand to facilitate thedestruction of the unwanted item. However, the questions inherent in such an approach are many: What would be the actual function of the active material? How would it achieve that function? How could a potentially active material be placed in an explosive article without affecting the normal operation and safe storage of the item? How could the active ingredient be temporarily inerted? How would the dormant active material be triggered into reactivity? How much of such an active material can the explosive tolerate without greatly altering its performance?Due to the short duration of this research program we have attempted to explore each question to some extent in order to prepare the path for future studies. While this is cast as a study in terms of what to do with unwanted or discarded munitions, answers could be morphed into a more general problem, such as what to do with unwanted or discarded plastics. Munitions is perhaps the harder problem set due to the inherent dangers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 31, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1113520
Entities
People
- Jimmie C. Oxley
Organizations
- University of Rhode Island