S.A.Robotics

Client	URS/EG&G
Facility	DOD Tooele Army Depot, Area 10
Location	Utah

The Tooele Army Depot stockpiles thousands of munitions including bombs, projectiles, land mines, spray tanks, rockets and one-ton storage containers loaded with nerve gas and blister agents. At one time this stockpile represented 44 percent of the country’s entire chemical armory. The Army completed a $1 billion incinerator to destroy the deadly chemicals housed at the Depot. Recently, completion of this demilitarization campaign gained urgency due to the fact that, nearly every month, some of the aging munitions stored in protective igloos at the Depot are discovered to be leaking. Leaking munitions must be specially double-packed until they can be destroyed.

S.A.Technology was tasked with designing and building a sampling system for Mustard Agent Ton containers in two igloos. The resulting engineering designs were based on economic analyses, resistance to fluid corrosive factors and loading considerations including: dead, live, seismic and dynamic load factors. The system was designed for an igloo with three enclosures beneath a two-ton trolley hoist frame work. The frame work represented the secondary containment boundary and the enclosure itself became the primary containment. The hoist travels from a staging area to the end of the third enclosure; each enclosure is loaded with five Ton containers. After the enclosure lid has been closed, the operator takes samples of the containers. Sampling is completed with a specialized head that moves along a rail from one Ton container to the next. Once sampling is complete, the enclosure is reopened and washed with a bleach solution to neutralize any spilled sampling fluid that might be captured by an interior catch pan. Air inside and outside the igloo is monitored for minuscule transmissions during the entire process. S.A.Technology is also in charge of designing a work platform along one side of the enclosure that is elevated for loading, sampling and decontamination work.

S.A.Technology is responsible for the design, fabrication, and installation of six identical gloveboxes at the Tooele Army Depot to maintain control of Mustard Agent HD vapors and to facilitate sampling of Ton Containers. Each glovebox includes a support structure for supporting the sampling head along the inside wall. A penetration port is provided on each box to allow “pass through” for the decontamination fluid supply, water, and compressed air piping into the box. The penetration port also contains a spare port. This project was delivered with a firm fixed price on an accelerated schedule.