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LOCAL NEWS
Officials say weapons disposal more than 50 days ahead of schedule
By Todd South
Star Staff Writer
1-24-08
Chemical weapons destruction at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal is more than 50 days ahead of schedule, according to ANCDF officials.
The sooner the facility incinerates all of the chemical agent and weapons, the sooner any threat to the public can be eliminated.
But safety is the number one priority, ANCDF officials say.
Project managers with the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency and Westinghouse Anniston, the contracted company working on the chemical munitions destruction, gave an update to the local Citizen's Advisory Committee and heads of the surrounding counties' emergency management agencies on the project Wednesday.
The Department of Defense has offered a $100 million incentive to Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor in charge of chemical agent disposal at the facility.
The DOD will pay $25 million to the company if operations are completed six months before the chemical weapons treaty completion date of April 29, 2012, said Love.
The remaining $75 million and a $50 million bonus is promised to the company if they are able to close the facility one year prior to the anticipated closing date, which is 44 months after operations cease.
Steve Swafford, director of the Cleburne County EMA, had concerns that with the incentive, workers may rush work and ignore safety precautions.
Robert Love, project general manager for Westinghouse Anniston assured Swafford and others that the incentive is based not only on early completion, but also on safe procedure.
Any problems in safety could slow the process, Love said.
"If I see things going the wrong way, I'll stop it," he said.
Love said the company has trained a team to work on "leakers" or munitions that had to be pulled due to a defect or flaw that did not allow for normal processing.
The team now disposes of the "leakers" while regular processing takes place. The leaker processing normally would have been done once regular munitions had been destroyed.
The parallel work speeds up the process by cutting down on time that would have been needed at the end of the operation, Love said.
More than 39 percent of the chemical weapon stockpile has been destroyed since the operation began in Aug. 2003.
The facility has destroyed its entire GB nerve agent stockpile and all of the M55 VX nerve agent-filled rockets.
ANCDF is destroying 155 mm artillery shells containing VX.
Destruction of the rockets and GB munitions has lowered the impact off the project site by 97 percent, said Timothy Garrett, site project manager for the CMA.
The rockets and GB munitions were more dangerous to the community because those weapons had a greater risk of spreading offsite if an accident occurred, Garrett said.
The current munitions have a much lower level of risk for the surrounding community, but emergency officials still must train for the possibility of an accident, he said.
The worry among some emergency management officials, such as Swafford, is that the public might hear the threat is 97 percent reduced and not be prepared in the event that an accident occurs.
About Todd South
Todd South covers Oxford, Lincoln and Munford for The Star. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia.
Contact Todd South
Phone: 256-235-3548
Fax: 256-241-1991
E-mail: tsouth@annistonstar.com