Arsenal: GB-gas burning half done

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WHITE HALL - Crews eliminating chemical weapons stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal said Thursday that they had reached the halfway point in their destruction of rockets holding the nerve gas GB.

The midpoint milestone, reached at 5:07 a.m. Thursday, "reflects very positively on all those across our arsenal who have a part in the storage, transport and destruction mission," Lt. Col. Casey Scott, commander of the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, said.

The arsenal has destroyed about 45,000 GB rockets since March 2005, the arsenal said. When the GB rockets are gone, teams will dispose of rockets holding the nerve agent VX. The weapons are being destroyed under terms of international treaties.

Before the destruction began, the arsenal stored 3,850 tons of chemical agent, amounting to 12 percent of the Army's original chemical-weapons stockpile, for more than 60 years.

The arsenal also holds VX-filled land mines and containers of a blister agent.

This story was published Friday, July 21, 2006.