NEWPORT, Ind. - Army contractors resumed inspecting
a chemical reactor built to destroy a deadly nerve agent Monday, trying to
determine what caused a weekend spill that forced a temporary halt to operations
at the western Indiana complex.
On Saturday, nearly 500 gallons of caustic wastewater produced
by the destruction of the VX nerve agent spilled in a contained area at the
Newport Chemical Depot's disposal facility.
No workers were injured or exposed to the hydrolysate, a chemical
the Army has compared to liquid drain cleaner.
Depot spokeswoman Terry Arthur said workers clad in protective
suits entered the containment area several times over the weekend to clean
up the spill and investigate what caused the leak at the complex 30 miles
north of Terre Haute.
Workers with Army contractor Parsons Technology Inc. entered
the containment area again Monday, searching for clues to what went wrong
with one of the complex's two chemical reactors, she said.
Arthur said more than 400 gallons of the spilled hydrolysate
have been pumped from the containment area and into holding tanks.
In May, work began to destroy Newport's more than 250,000
gallons of VX, a substance so toxic that a single droplet can kill a healthy
human. The project was halted in June after a leak resulted in a spill of
about 30 gallons of VX, sodium hydroxide and water. Work resumed at Newport
in late August.
The June spill occurred when polymer-based components in one
of the reactors' injection valves failed. Those valves have since been replaced
with an all-metal ball bearing system that played no role in the latest spill,
Arthur said.
Saturday's leak appears to have occurred in a recirculation
loop used to sample each batch of hydrolysate, she said. The hydrolysate,
which is created by mixing VX with heated water and sodium hydroxide, must
contain no measurable amounts of VX.
Arthur said it was not clear when the VX destruction will
resume.
"At this point we don't know how long we will be in suspension,
so it's hard to say how it will impact the final schedule," she said.
Elizabeth Crowe, an organizer for the Berea, Ky.-based watchdog
Chemical Weapons Working Group, said delays have been common at the nation's
weapon-destruction facilities.
Newport is one of eight chemical weapons storage sites across
the nation where the Army is working to destroy stockpiles as part of an
international treaty.
Pending federal approval, the Army plans to ship millions
of gallons of hydrolysate to a DuPont Inc., plant in New Jersey for treatment
and eventual discharge into the Delaware River.
