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ERDC/CRREL TR-02-1
process is one major source of contamination. For example, a single TNT
manufacturing plant can generate over 1.8 megaliters (480,000 gal) of
wastewater per day (Yinon 1999). Only a limited number of studies have been
published up to now on the characterization of military testing and training
ranges (Ampleman et al. 1998, 2000; Thiboutot et al. 2000; Jenkins et al. 2001).
To assess the extent of explosive contamination, it is necessary to detect and
identify explosives and their degradation products in groundwater and soil. The
development of a sampling guide for explosives-contaminated sites must there-
fore include all of the currently accepted practices for sampling, analysis, and
management of environmental data. In addition, this sampling guide needs to
specifically address relevant aspects of explosives contamination. To accomplish
this task, the guide briefly discusses the major issues involved with the charac-
terization of explosives materials in the main body of the text and uses appen-
dixes to provide more detailed descriptions of the procedures and methodologies
currently recommended for these tasks.
Definition of Energetic Materials
Conventional weapons use energetic materials (EM) in the form of propel-
lants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. A brief description of each type of EM is
given below.
Explosives are classified as `primary' or `secondary' based on their suscep-
tibility to initiation. Primary explosives, which include lead azide, lead styphnate,
and mercury fulminate, are highly susceptible to ignition and are often referred to
as initiating explosives, since they can be used to ignite secondary explosives.
Secondary explosives are much more prevalent on military sites than primary
explosives. They include trinitrotoluene (TNT), 1,3,5-hexahydro-1,3,5-
trinitrotriazine or research development explosive (RDX), octrahydro-1,3,5,7-
tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine or high melting explosive (HMX), and 2,4,6-
trinitro-phenylmethylnitramine or tetryl. Since they are formulated to detonate
under specific circumstances, secondary explosives are often used as main
charges or boosting explosives. Secondary explosives fall into two main cate-
gories: (1) melt-cast explosives, based primarily on TNT, and (2) plastic-bonded
explosives (PBX), which consist of a polymer matrix filled with a crystalline
explosive such as RDX. Secondary explosives can also be classified according to
their chemical structure. For example, TNT and trinitrobenzene are classified as
nitroaromatics, whereas RDX and HMX are nitramines. The physical and
chemical properties of nitroaromatics and nitramines are presented in Table 1
(Walsh et al. 1995).
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