Construction is ramping up on the Explosive Destruction Technology (EDT) site, which will augment the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant by destroying the mustard agent stockpile stored at the depot.

The Static Detonation Chamber (SDC), which arrived in August 2015, is scheduled to be installed in November and December, said Steve Bragg, deputy plant manager.

To prepare the site for the SDC, workers installed underground utilities, site fencing and lighting, and placed the concrete foundation for the EDT Enclosure Building.

The system will use thermal destruction methods to destroy munitions in a spherical, fully-contained and armored, high alloy stainless steel vessel. The SDC uses electrically-generated heat to detonate (or deflagrate) the munitions, thus destroying the mustard agent and energetics, said Bragg. It is scheduled to operate from early 2017 for an expected 9 months.

The SDC completed Factory Acceptance Testing in Kristinehamn, Sweden, where the system was also manufactured. Shipping crews transported it more than four thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean to the Port of Baltimore, then it was transported by trucks to the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky.

UXB International is also supplying the EDT Enclosure Building and is fabricating the building at various locations throughout the country. Foundation excavation for the EDT Service Magazine, the protective area where munitions will await entry to the destruction process, started in September 2015.