Global Security Newswire

The Explosive Destruction System developed by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico has been upgraded to destroy chemical and biological weapons, the Contra Costa Times reported today (see GSN, March 9, 2004).

The system is an 8-ton device that has the appearance of a front-loading washing machine and can be transported to destroy suspect containers or munitions on site. Sandia developed the units in 1998 for the U.S. Army and they have since been used to destroy 228 potentially deadly munitions or chemical weapons around the country, the Times reported.

Further tests have shown that the system could use different “reagents” to eliminate biological agents such as anthrax.

Items are loaded into a steel pipe that slides into a unit’s stainless steel chamber. The container is then opened by a charge. X-rays and a neutron spectrometer determine the contents of the object, and the proper chemical reagents are then fed into the spinning chamber to neutralize toxins. Any explosion is contained within the device, according to the Times.

Large EDS units cost $5 million to construct, while smaller ones cost $3.5 million, said project spokesman John Didlake.

The units are useful for destroying munitions near population centers. Previously, responders would use an open burn/open detonation method “which could blow the windows out of a town,” Didlake said (Linda Davis, Contra Costa Times, Feb. 16).