Military Waste Storage Site

AstanaAfghanistan

By Will MeddingsandAnnie Goldie

Site History

• Located in Astana (Afghanistan) in a small village in the Panjshir Valley.

• Site used by the Russian army as a helicopter base in the 1980’s.

• During the period of the Taliban governence in the 1990’s, the Afghan Northern Alliance stockpiled military equipment throughout the Panjshir Valley.

• Equipment was separated into stockpiles at 4 main areas on site.

Site Description

• 6 hectare of land.• Site until recently used for grazing land for goats

and cattle.• Crops were also cultivated in some areas.• Part of the site was used to grow vegetables but

was stopped in the last decade due to odours emanating from nearby stored materials.

Site 1

• Missile and warhead storage area.

• Excavated trench (8mx5m) used to store bodies of 3 missiles and 32 warhead casings.

• Many casings were unsealed exposing approximately 150kg of warheads.

Scud missile warhead casings

Site 2

• Rocket fuel storage area.• Two separate stockpiles of 500 litre containers.• Stockpile 1 had 22 stored at ground level.• Stockpile 2 had 85 stored in a shallow trench.• No ground cover protection provided (ie impermeable surfacing or bunds).• Faint, pungent, ammonia like odour suggested degradation of hydrazine compounds.

SCUD missile fuel containers storedbelow ground level in a shallow trench.

Site 3

• Warhead cover storage area.• 2 conical warhead covers

(0.4mx0.5m weighing 10kg).• Originally contained the

missile fuse.• At the time of assessment no

fuse was present in either warhead.

The warhead covers

Site 4

• Missile casing and nitric acid storage area.

• Here were stockpiled 46 steel 200 litre containers.

• Filled with fuming nitric acid.

• Analysis of soil samples indicated pH levels < 3.0 suggesting that leaching or spills had occurred.

Nitric acid containers

Chemicals, Toxicology and Radioactivity

• Primary chemicals and materials of concern were:• Hydrazine• Nitric Acid

• Other potentially hazardous contaminants may exist in this area such as:

• Amines• Heavy metals/metalloid constituents• Fuels and lubricants

Hydrazine

• Physical Properties• UDMH – colourless, fuming and hygroscopic fluid at

ordinary pressure and temperature.• Pungent, acrid odour.• Turns yellow upon exposure to air.• Rapidly decomposes when heated or exposed to

ultraviolet radiation.• Toxic for plants in both air and water and highly

flammable.

Nitric Acid

• Physical properties• Colourless, highly corrosive to metals, poisionous liquid.• Gives off red or yellow fumes in moist air.• Nitric Acid for commercial use is typically 52% - 68%

nitric acid in water.• A strong acid, which reacts violently with bases forming

flammable/explosive gas • Solutions containing over 86% are commonly called

fuming nitric acid.• Soluble in water and harmful to aquatic organisms.• Not expected to biodegrade or bioconcentrate.

Short Term Measures

• Remove hazardous materials from site to secure compound and perform deeper soil tests.

• Remove radioactive substances and explosives from site to secure compound.

• Restrict crop growth and animal grazing until all hazardous materials are removed from site.

Possible Solutions

• Removal of contaminants - excavation, soil washing etc…

• Treatment to render harmless- pump & treat

• Immobilisation/Containment- capping, subsurface barriers, solidification

Methods For Reducing Hydrazine

• Heat to over 200 Degrees Celsius.• Expose to ultraviolet radiation.• N2H4 + H2O → [N2H5]+ + OH−

Compound Range of degradation half life values

  Soil (hours) Groundwater (hours)

Hydrazine 24 to 168 48 to 336

Methods For Reducing Nitric Acid

• Non-treatment processes• Treatment processes - such as ion exchange, reverse

osmosis, biological denitrification and chemical reduction remove portions of the pollutant.

• Bio-chemical Denitrification: Ethanol can be used to oxidise the nitrate ion to its elemental state of N2.

• 6H+ + 6NO3- + 5CH3OH -> 3N2 + 5CO2 + 13H2O

Conclusion

• Since the site has been treated, this has allowed for crops to be grown once again and animals to graze safely.

• If the site had not been treated, the long term effects to the environment and local people could have been a lot worse maybe resulting in large fines and court cases.