Inerting of recovered munitions from the scuttled Confederate States Ship (CSS) Georgia by MuniRem Environmental

MuniRem Environmental (MRE) was contracted through DONJON Marine Inc., to support inerting operations for munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) removed from the Confederate States Ship (CSS) Georgia in the Savannah River. MRE’s scope of work was to receive, store, inert, and dispose of munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) items recovered from the CSS Georgia wreck site. These MEC items, Civil War era cannon balls, are considered to be Discarded Military Munitions (DMM). A Navy Explosives Ordinance Disposal dive team conducted an underwater UXO clearance around the sunken wreck and raised the munitions. The two primary types of munitions items recovered were 6.4 inch Brooke projectiles and 9 inch
Dahlgren Mortars. Custody of 170 munitions was transferred from the US Navy to the US Marine Corps and then to the MRE team for inerting using MuniRem - a patented technology. The MRE team was composed of a Senior UXO Marine, UXO QA and Safety Navy Senior Chief, Senior Chemist and Chemical Engineer.

A MRE process was successfully applied to remove the main charge and the threat of a detonation and fragmentation of the munitions safely without disturbing the most hazardous part of the munition (the fuze). Thereafter, the amount of explosives remaining within the projectile was contained within the fuze. Subsequently, the fuze was rendered safe by unscrewing and inerting in MuniRem solution or drilling directly though the fuze body to access and neutralize the explosives again using a solution of MuniRem. All explosive material flushed from the munitions was fully neutralized with MuniRem solution for safe disposal as non-hazardous waste.