LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot can safely be destroyed there, according to an independent study.

A combination of different steps to destroy the 523 tons of weapons should work, but those processes should go through more testing, the National Research Council said in a study released Monday.

The council is a nonprofit institution that is part of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

“I think in general the science is pretty well worked out,” said Willard Gekler, a member of the council’s committee of experts that conducted the study. “What the committee concluded was that the combination of different process steps put in there should work.”

The Richmond facility is scheduled to start neutralizing weapons such as sarin and mustard gas in 2008. That would be done by mixing them with caustic chemicals or water, then superheating the mix to produce carbon dioxide, water and various salts.

Tom Thilman, 52, whose house is about a quarter-mile from the depot, said he was glad to hear the council’s assessment.

“Any time you have an independent group going in there doing a study, it’s great,” he said. “If they feel comfortable, that’s a little assurance.”

But Thilman said that he and his wife Sara, 39, are still concerned about whether the new technologies are sufficiently tested to avoid safety problems.

Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a citizens’ group in Berea, called the study encouraging.

Various elements of the destruction process have been extensively studied and in some cases tested.

The techniques for cutting up rockets holding chemical agents need to be modified to prevent fires, according to the study, which was conducted for the Army.

And the Army needs to consider alternatives to sending contaminated waste offsite for destruction, the study said.

“While the report accurately reflects challenges that remain, it is important to note that no new major hurdles or issues have been introduced by this study,” said U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Lexington.