Joplin -- A company that received a $15 million contract from the Department of Defense is expanding and modifying the way it handles military munitions.

EBV Explosives Environmental Co., east of Joplin, said it will spend $20 million and add dozens of jobs as it deals with "demilitarizing" cluster bombs and rocket launchers.

Demilitarizing involves disassembling the munitions, which is more labor-intensive than using the company's current rotary-kiln incinerator.

The reactive or explosive waste is separated, and then ignited and allowed to burn in a thermal-treatment unit, with metals recovered for recycling.

EBV Explosives is seeking two permit modifications from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to construct and operate the thermal-treatment units.

Robert Guy, safety and health manager for EBV, said demilitarization is more cost-effective, environmentally friendly and safer than incineration. And, he said, the thermal-treatment units are 10 times more effective in controlling emissions than the rotary kiln.

"The pollution-control system on the thermal-treatment units is more advanced, a lot more advanced than what was available 10 years ago," Guy said.

Bill Michels, a former Carthage veterinarian who was among those who opposed construction of the rotary-kiln incinerator in the late 1980s, said, "We should be concerned about anything that puts lead into the air since we already have too much lead in our environment. If the pollution is less, that is the good news."

The DNR is inviting the public to review and offer written comments on the proposed permit modifications until Dec. 29. Anyone may request a public hearing on the modifications by contacting the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Richard Hock of the DNR said the new units will be inspected before they come online to ensure they are safe for human health and the environment.

The expansion will gradually increase total employment to 125, according to Dave Zoghby, spokesman for EBV, in Tamaqua, Pa.

Zoghby said the expansion would bring an additional eight truck shipments of explosive wastes into the area each week. The trucks will travel on routes that avoid heavily populated areas in Joplin, Carthage and Webb City.

The pollution-control measures on the new thermal-treatment buildings, Zoghby said, would be 10 times more effective than the emission controls on the existing rotary-kiln incinerator.

While the rotary-kiln incinerator requires a continuous feed of explosive wastes, one item at a time is fed into the thermal-treatment units, which significantly enhances worker safety, Guy said.

In August 1998, one man was killed and another injured when an explosion ripped through the conveyor room of the rotary-kiln incinerator.