The Pine Bluff Arsenal resumed its destruction of chemical weapons on Sunday after completing a maintenance project.

Last week workers began moving munitions from underground storage igloos to the Chemical Agent Disposal Facility to prepare for the resumption of disposal work.

Processing halted Jan. 10 to replace plastic pipes in the facility’s pollution-abatement system with pipes made from an alloy. The pipes carry a cleaning solution used in the system that cools and cleans exhaust gases generated by incinerators used in the process. Similar work has taken place at the Umatilla, Ore., facility and a disposal facility in Anniston, Ala.

Since incineration began with the draining of two rockets filled with the nerve agent GB on March 29, 2005, the arsenal has destroyed 34,207 GB rockets -- about 38 percent of its stockpile -- and 352,782 pounds of the GB nerve agent, about 5 percent of the stockpile at the arsenal.

This story was published Tuesday, May 16, 2006