[ PCO Home Page ] [ Table of Contents of NEWSLETTER # 64 ]

........ published in NEWSLETTER # 64

DEMILITARISATION OF MUNITIONS: RE-USE AND RECYCLING CONCEPTS FOR CONVENTIONAL MUNITIONS AND ROCKET PROPELLANTS
by Professor T. Rosendorfer, Entsorgungs- und Sanierungstechnik, Schrobenhausen (Germany)

The end of the Cold War indicates a remarkable change in the defence industry in the Warsaw Pact States as well as in the NATO countries. A surplus of thousands of tons of ammunition has to be demilitarised to prevent unauthorised use and the latent danger which is an intrinsic character of all munitions especially after long-time storage.

But demilitarisation should not be understood as a request for the destruction of surplus munitions only. Besides the personal and environmental aspect, the economics of this problem is also of great importance. Considerable resources were invested in the development and production of munitions, and thus preference should be given to those technologies which do not lead to financial loss. This needs to happen soon.

The presentations collected in the proceedings of the NATO meeting "Demilitarisation of Munitions: Re-use and Recycling Concepts for Conventional Munitions and Rocket Propellants" held in Kiev, Ukraine, in September 1995 (NATO ASI SERIES 1-16), describe the efforts of scientists from the Ukraine and NATO countries to meet this challenge.

In the NATO countries the first goal was the destruction of stockpile munitions under environmentally compatible conditions. From this point of view, the proceedings are characterised by technologies for the conversion of military explosives into civil explosives or their disposal by incineration as well as safety aspects for the reverse production of various types of munitions. Ukrainian scientists and chemists emphasized the conversion of military explosive and hazardous materials into non-explosive civil compounds and demonstrated very skilled approaches for the re-use of these materials as fertilisers, surface active substances and other products.

The aim of the Advanced Research Workshop was achieved in that economically and environmentally compatible reduction of surplus ammunition was demonstrated.
Reference books: 1-4, 1-6, 1-10, 1-12, 1-14, 1-16

[ PCO Home Page ]