TA-36 Brief Description

4.18.1 Site Description TA-36 [Table 4-16 and Figure 4-18 (index map of TA-36)] has four active firing sites that support explosives testing. The sites and associated buildings are used for a wide variety of non-nuclear ordnance tests for DoD, which include tests of warhead designs during development, armor and armor-defeating mechanisms, explosives vulnerability to projectile and shaped-charge attack, warhead lethality, and tests to determine the effects of shock waves on explosives and propellants. TA-36 is located in a remote area that is fenced and patrolled. Warning signs are provided at roadblocks, and sirens and flashing lights warn of imminent testing and firing. 4.18.2 Facilities Description The facilities at TA-36 accommodate shipping, receiving, transporting, and testing HE. Hazards in this technical area include explosives and propellants, warheads, projectiles fired from guns, depleted uranium, radiation from various x-ray systems, and normal industrial hazards from handling and transporting materials. (These hazards do not warrant categorization as moderate-, high-, or nuclear hazard facilities.) Operations at TA-36 include • developing diagnostic techniques for high-explosives characterizations and applications, • conducting scaling studies that consist primarily of work on subscale models for firing tests, • testing special armor/antiarmor that consists of chemical energy warhead tests and kinetic energy projectile tests, • testing nuclear weapons components, • testing large- and small-bore guns, • testing special-application warheads and developing and calibrating computer models based on test results, and • conducting insensitive munitions research that uses special techniques to evaluate fragmentation of military bombs.   ©2004 lasg.org