Umatilla Depot Destroys Nerve Gas Rockets

Jan. 23, 2008
Associated Press

UMATILLA, Ore. - The Umatilla Chemical Depot has passed a milestone, burning the last of its rockets bearing the nerve agent VX.

An international treaty calls for destroying chemical weapons.

Earlier, it had destroyed rockets bearing GB, or sarin, considered the more dangerous of the two nerve agents.

The depot has more weapons bearing VX, a clear, oily liquid. The depot will take two months to change equipment before starting on VX artillery weapons.

The depot also has mustard agent weapons to burn. Spokesman Bruce Henrickson says Umatilla hopes to finish incinerating weapons by 2012. After that, the plant is to be decommissioned, which could take three years.

Umatilla is one of seven Army facilities that have been destroying chemical weapons under terms of a 1997 treaty.