Degraded valve halts Newport's VX destruction

Newport -- An Army contractor halted work Thursday to destroy a deadly nerve agent after workers found degraded seals in one of the western Indiana complex's two chemical reactors.

The VX neutralization operations at the Newport Chemical Depot were suspended after workers performing scheduled maintenance on reactor No. 1 found degraded internal seals in a three-way valve, said Jeff Brubaker, the Army's site project manager.

Unlike past incidents at the depot, this time the Army said there was no spill of any of the wastewater created by the destruction of Newport's VX nerve agent stockpile. The reactor had been emptied in preparation for the scheduled maintenance.

As a precaution, neutralization was also halted in reactor No. 2. Neither reactor will return to operation until the valve in reactor one is replaced and the second reactor is evaluated, Brubaker said.

He said that task was expected to take about two weeks. If necessary, he said engineers from contractor Parsons Technology Inc. will replace the three-way valve on the second reactor.

"We've taken this conservative measure to preserve the safety of our workers, the public and the environment," Brubaker said.

Work was under way Thursday afternoon to replace the degraded valve.

Since VX destruction began in May 2005, workers have destroyed about 15 percent of the more than 250,000 gallons of VX stored at the complex about 30 miles north of Terre Haute. The Cold War-era agent is so potent a single droplet of it can kill a person.