How Safe Is Safe Enough for a Chemical Weapons Destruction System?

AbstractFollowing the earthquake in East Japan and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, the safety of highly technical projects such as those for chemical weapons destruction has come under scrutiny. This review includes consideration of the impact of outlier events on the recovery and destruction of sea-disposed munitions.At Port Kanda, Japan, a project for detection, recovery, and destruction of sea-dumped chemical munitions is ongoing, and approximately 3,000 items have been cleaned up as of the end of July 2011. In light of the recent earthquake and accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, the authors review the safety design criteria for the system, including transportation based on the International Atomic Energy Agency spent-fuel transportation cask design and detonation chamber based on the new ASME design Code Case 2564 for impulsively loaded vessels. One of the important lessons learned from the disaster is that risks from earthquake and tsunami can be reduced when destruction of chemical weapons is done at the recovery site.