Leaking munition destroyed at incinerator

By Nathan Solheim
Assistant Metro Editor
02-26-2004

It took incinerator workers about three hours Wednesday to destroy a pallet of 14 M-55 rockets thought to contain at least one leaking munition. Until now, the Army has destroyed only rockets with crystals in its agent and rockets with drainable chemical agent. The leaking rocket was detected inside a sealed transportation carrier, called an EONC, Tuesday after workers took an air sample from the carrier’s interior. Mike Abrams, a spokesman for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, said Wednesday there were no visible signs of a leaking rocket in the lot of 14, but the munitions were destroyed anyway so workers would not be faced with the potential of working around leaking munitions. “It went smoothly,” Abrams said. “They didn’t have to deal with any agent alarms and there was no apparent evidence of any leaking among the 14 rockets.” Two workers wearing protective face masks and protective suits placed the rockets by hand on a conveyor leading to the facility’s 1,100 degree deactivation furnace where the rockets were destroyed. Incinerator officials had been expecting to encounter and process leaking rockets at some point during their operations. It only came a little sooner than expected. “We anticipated we would have to eventually work with a sealed EONC that had a positive chemical agent reading,” said Tim Garrett, the Army site manager at the incinerator, in a written release. “We have a procedure in place that had been practiced and the situation was safely resolved. This is something we will do again when we have another EONC with an agent reading.”

About Nathan Solheim

Assistant Metro Editor Nathan Solheim is Minnesota native and a University of Georgia graduate.