Next category of weapons ready for Anniston disposal

The Associated Press
April 25, 2005


The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility could begin destroying a new category of weapons this week, with the destruction of its stockpile of 8-inch shells almost complete.

Crews are reworking machinery to accept 155 mm artillery shells.

"It's been quite smooth," said Mike Abrams, a spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency, which oversees the weapons destruction at Anniston. "It's not as major as what we're looking at toward the end of the year, when we begin to retool for a new agent campaign."

To date the facility has destroyed 56,234 weapons 42,762 rockets and warheads and 13,472 eight-inch artillery shells and 598,967 pounds of sarin.

Elsewhere, crews at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele, Utah, destroyed 1,583 VX-filled mines from April 10 to April 17. To date the facility has destroyed 1,003,511 munitions and about 14.6 million pounds of chemical agent.

Mine processing is expected to continue though June, though Alaine Southworth, a spokeswoman for the facility, said she couldn't give an exact date. The shipment of weapons, she said, depends on weather conditions such as wind and temperature.

"You just never know," she said. "Sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate in shipping mines to the plant."

The Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facility in Umatilla, Ore., destroyed 1,656 sarin-filled rockets and 14,690 pounds of agent between Thursday, April 14 and last Wednesday. To date the facility has destroyed 12,530 rockets and 129,616 pounds of agent.

Production halted two weeks ago after a fire in an explosive containment room. Mary Binder, a spokeswoman for the Umatilla facility, said there was "no specific cause" for the fire.

"All equipment, including the suppression system, operated as it should," she said.

The Pine Bluff Chemical Disposal Facility in Arkansas destroyed 490 sarin-filled rockets between Tuesday, April 12 and Tuesday, April 18, and has destroyed 958 rockets since starting operations in late March. Processing agent has started. Raini Wright, a spokeswoman for the facility, was unavailable for comment last week.

A fifth chemical-disposal facility, in Newport, Ind., is expected to begin operations next month.

The Army has destroyed about a third of the United States' Cold War chemical weapons stockpile.