State approves incinerator's plans to destroy gelled rockets

The Associated Press
August 06, 2004

The state's environmental agency on Friday approved a plan by the Anniston Army Depot to destroy rockets with the gelled or crystallized form of the deadly nerve agent sarin, the Army said.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management authorized the disposal of the gelled rockets after the Army this week completed incinerating rockets with the liquid form of sarin.

The rockets have to be destroyed in a different manner than are liquid rockets, but the process is not necessarily more dangerous, the Army said. Disposal for the gelled rockets is scheduled to begin this weekend.

The $1 billion incinerator has destroyed more than 34,000 rockets and about 37,000 gallons of the nerve agent since it began operations on Aug. 9, 2003, the Army said.

The Army would not give the exact number of rockets with the gelled nerve agent, but said it is smaller than the number of rockets that have already been destroyed.

Some 2,254 tons of Cold War-munitions had been stored for decades at the site, which is about 50 miles east of Birmingham. Army officials have said the incinerator is on track to have all the rockets and nerve agent destroyed by 2010.