News of the Week
EPA APPROVES PCB DESTRUCTION PROCESS The Environmental Protection Agency last week approved the first chemical process for destroying toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, which have been widely used in electrical transformer and capacitor insulating fluids. The process, developed by Sunohio of Canton, Ohio, and called PCBX (C&EN, Sept. 22,1980, page 6), becomes the only approved alternative to incineration or burial for PCB-contaminated oils. EPA's acting assistant administrator for pesticides and toxic substances, Edwin H. Clark, says the process is "of significant value in solving the nationwide PCB problem." Contamination of the environment by PCB's has become ubiquitous since their introduction in 1929. Animal tests have shown that PCB exposure can lead to reproductive failures, birth defects, skin lesions, and tumors. Clark says the process has been approved for limited use in EPA Region IV (based in Atlanta) and for more widespread use in Region VII (headquartered in Kansas City, Mo.). Under current rules, each regional administrator determines what PCB disposal practices are used in that region. And the process will be limited to decontamination of mineral oils used as coolants and dielectrics in large electrical transformers. About 750 million lb of PCB's are still in use or in storage, much of which could be eliminated by PCBX.
The PCBX process uses a proprietary reagent that strips the chlorine atoms from the compounds, converting them to chloride. The biphenyl moiety is polymerized to a polyphenylene and precipitated from the oil with calcium chloride, into a holding tank. The cleaned oil can be returned to the transformer for reuse. Excess reagent in the oil is destroyed or removed before going back to the transformer. The waste polyphenylene from the process is not soluble in water, is only slightly soluble in alcohol or other hydrocarbon solvents, and is considered environmentally safe. The prototype setup used by Sunohio for the EPA tests can decontaminate oil at a rate of about 10 gal per minute, but future setups are expected to do better. The system's size and efficiency permit it to be built into a truck trailer, which can go to the transformers, rather than having to transport the oil from the transformers to a plant. It can take PCB levels from any concentration down to less than 2 ppm, the detection limit for these compounds. At this time Sunohio has only one unit ready for commercial use, but two more are under construction and a total of five mobile units are planned. The technology also is available for licensing. Sunohio officials estimate the price of decontamination to be competitive with other systems, figuring about $3.00 per gal
Mobile Sunohio unit cleans PCB-contamlnated transformer oil on site 4
C&EN June 1, 1981
vs. up to more than $5.00 per gal for incineration. Preliminary testing indicates that with modifications the process can be used to destroy chlorinated pesticides as well. Although Sunohio officials are reluctant to speculate, this also could save companies with stores of now illegal pesticides considerable expense in disposing of the materials. D
Senate okays funds for binary weapons facility After only a 40-minute debate on the floor, the Senate last week approved $20 million to equip the Pine Bluff, Ark., facility which is being built to produce binary nerve-gas shells. The money, sought by the Reagan Administration in its fiscal 1981 defense supplemental request, already was approved by the House. It is, however, only a pittance of the estimated $2 billion to $4 billion required to bring binary chemical weapons into full production. The Senate's decision to accede to the Administration's request was reached without value of Appropriations Committee hearings. Opponents of a resumption of a chemical arms race argue that the decision was, therefore, reached inappropriately. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R.-Ore.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, last year successfully blocked insertion of $19 million in the defense appropriations bill for the weapons facility. This time around, in an emotional outburst, he asked: "My God, is there no limit to the voracious appetite of the military machine that wants to suck up every dollar that we have?" Again he cited lack of public hearings, and lack of consultation with NATO allies on whose soil these weapons will have to be stockpiled. Sen. David H. Pryor (D.-Ark.), in whose state the facility will be built, and who opposes a chemical weapons program, argued that such a program "repeals the spirit of what the civilized world has been working toward since the Geneva agreements of 1925." He noted that the action taken by the Senate would "reverse the position of the past three Administrations" and begin "a race that has no finish line."
Sen. John W. Warner (R.-Va.), who introduced the successful amendment, argued that resumption of chemical arms production, halted by former President Richard Nixon in 1969, was needed to counter the "ominous and growing threat of a Sovietfirst-useof these weapons" and to restore "credibility to our chemical deterrent." However, Hatfield quoted from a letter written by Saul Hormats, who developed the current generation of chemical arms in the U.S. stockpile. Hormats wrote that to begin a multibillion-dollar binary production program without an extensive testing program "would be a criminal waste of money. To supply production-line rounds to our forces on an unproved munitions system without confirmatory field trials would be worse." Hormats' warning went unheeded in Congress. The Defense Department has not, and, under current law, cannot test the new generation of chemical weapons. Still, both the House and Senate voted funds to allow the Pentagon to embark on a chemical arms program. Although the Administration requested the $20 million to equip the binary weapons production facility, it has not requested funds in fiscal 1982 defense appropriations for production of these weapons. An aide to Hatfield tells C&EN that the "very close, impressive vote" on the $20 million item .sent a message to the Administration that it has "no solid base for support" on the chemical arms issue. Hatfield, the aide says, intends to "keep the debate as public as possible and to assure as much European input as possible." D
Energy and a consortium of industrial sponsors. The new system is unique in having an array of 24 lasers arranged symmetrically around the target, a tiny thin-walled glass sphere containing a pressurized mixture of deuterium and tritium. The lasers fire simultaneously in bursts of about 10~10 second, blasting the fuel mixture with up to 10 trillion watts of power. The barrage causes the glass sphere to vaporize and implode, compressing the fuel and heating it to several tens of millions of degrees. These conditions trigger the fusion reaction, in which a deuterium and tritium nucleus fuse, forming a helium nucleus, a neutron, and a burst of energy. Currently, Omega's neodymium glass lasers radiate in the infrared. But the Rochester scientists are planning to modify them to emit in the ultraviolet because their theoretical calculations indicate that the fusion fuel absorbs energy more effi-
ciently at these shorter wavelengths. Infared lasers produce troublesome "hot electrons" that heat the target prematurely, thus diminishing the resulting thermonuclear explosionin-miniature. By converting the lasers to ultraviolet, the hot electron problem largely is eliminated. Thus, as the laser light ablates material off the target's glass shell, progressively accelerating the shell inward, the heating of the fuel is due entirely to the compression, and greater fuel densities and temperatures can be achieved. These, in turn, will enable researchers to inch closer to the much sought-after breakeven point. Laser-induced fusion is being studied at several other U.S. laboratories. One of these—the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—has a 20-beam laser system that is more powerful than Omega, but many of the experiments conducted there are of a classified military nature. D
Scientists in industry: employment stays flat
Science and engineering employment in private industry has remained just about the same between 1970 and 1980. But there are shifts occurring between the manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors. These findings have emerged from a new report published by the National Science Foundation, "Scientists, Engineers, and Technicians in Private Industry: 1978-80." The report results from a joint effort by NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies and the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Division of Periodic Employment Statistics Programs. Overall, employment of scientists and engineers in private industry has Laser fusion system been fairly flat over the 10-year periachieves new record od, at about 1.1 million in 1980, compared to 1.0 million in 1970. However, In a test of a new laser fusion system the report notes that there are two at the University of Rochester's laser distinct trends apparent within prienergetics laboratory, researchers vate industry. zapped a tiny hydrogen fuel pellet The first is that in the manufacwith 24 high-powered laser beams, turing sector there has been a longigniting 13.5 billion fusion reac- run decline, During the 10-year peritions—a record for an unclassified od, employment of scientists and fuel target. Their results point the engineers in manufacturing fell at an way to future experiments aimed at average rate of about 1% per year achieving and then exceeding until 1978. Between 1978 and 1980, "breakeven," the point at which a there was a small recovery of 4%, most fusion reaction produces as much of this increase accounted for by energy as was necessary to trigger electrical equipment, machinery, and it. professional and scientific instruThe test was part of the shake- ments. down phase for Omega, the laser However, the second trend is that system that took five years to build there has been continuous growth in with funds from the Department of employment of scientists and engi-
neers in nonmanufacturing over the 1970 to 1980 period. The growth rate has been about 3% per year, except that between 1978 and 1980 the growth was more than 9%. Most of the ;rowth in this sector came in miscelÎaneous services, business services, and crude petroleum and natural gas extraction. As a result of the two trends, em-
Chemists' role is small in nonmanufacturing industries Chemical engineers, chemists as % of all engineers and scientists in 1 each nonmanufacturing Industry
Mining Metal mining Coal mining Crude petroleum, natural gas Nonmetallic mining Construction General building General except building Special trade Finance, insurance, real estate Banking and other credit Insurance Other finance, insurance, real estate Services Business services 1 Repairs, except auto Miscellaneous services 1 Other services
Chemical Chemengineers ists 2.0%
3.6%
1.1
9.8
0
5.5
2.1
1.8
7.5
13.6
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.3
0
0
0
3.5
3.5
4.3
5.8
0
0
3.1
1.5
0
2.9
June 1, 1981 C&EN
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