Assistant Metro Editor
The Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility will not process weapons this weekend so that workers can perform maintenance on the facility’s deactivation furnace.
The Army uses the deactivation furnace to destroy M-55 rockets that have been drained of their deadly GB nerve agent, as well as rockets with gelled or crystallized agent.
Workers stopped processing rockets Wednesday. The expect to have the furnace heated up and operational again by early next week, a facility spokesman said.
Tons of Cold War-era chemical weapons have been destroyed at the facility since Aug. 9.
The maintenance work does not pose a threat to community safety, said Mike Abrams, the spokesman for the facility.
Specifically, workers will be removing ash from a chute that feeds rocket pieces to the deactivation furnace.
“It’s not routine in that it’s something we’ve done before,” Abrams said. “We had to look at the back end of the deactivation furnace, and there’s just some material that has gathered back there, so we’ve got to clear that up so it’ll make the normal operations be a little more efficient.”
Abrams said the work requires multiple entries by workers into the area where the chute is. The furnace had to be cooled for the work to begin. Reheating the furnace will add about a day to the stoppage, he said.
To date, the facility has destroyed 15,831 rockets and 17,529 gallons of nerve agent.
The rate of destruction has leveled off in recent weeks, officials said, because it takes longer to destroy rockets with gelled or crystallized agent.
Incinerator officials have scheduled a public information session for Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Anniston Community Outreach Office on 11th Street.