Associated Press
August 13, 2003

Glitches fixed, Alabama weapons incinerator resumes burning

The Associated Press
8/13/03 3:41 PM

ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) -- The Army's newest chemical weapons incinerator resumed destroying munitions Wednesday after a two-day shutdown caused by mechanical glitches right after it opened.

No one was hurt, and none of the problems involved the nerve agents being destroyed at the Anniston Army Depot, according to incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams.

The incinerator, which began test burns of M55 rockets loaded with sarin on Saturday, did not operate on Monday after workers found hydraulic fluid had leaked from a blade used to chop the weapons into pieces.

No one was exposed to nerve agents but workers had to wear protective gear because the problem was in an area that has been exposed to lethal chemicals.

Workers discovered another problem Monday night with the motor on the cooling system for the charcoal filter banks that remove contamination from the incinerator's exhaust.

Abrams called the system "our final protection against the possibility of an agent release in the stack," such as happened at the Army's incinerator at Tooele, Utah, in 2000.

The problem was corrected and the incinerator resumed burning rockets, Abrams said.

Work is proceeding slowly during a series of test burns and employees are not trying to keep to any schedule, Abrams said.

"At this point we are working to make sure that all of our crews are equally proficient and confident in themselves, the equipment and the facility," he said.

The incinerator is the military's first to operate in a residential area. Emergency planners say some 35,000 people live within a nine-mile radius of the incinerator.

The Army plans to destroy some 2,254 tons of Cold War-era chemical weapons stored at the Anniston depot since the 1950s and early '60s.

Incineration critics and civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King III are planning a protest rally against incineration on Saturday in Anniston. Opponents lost a court fight to stop the Army from starting the incinerator.