| One incinerator began operations, and one
reported vapor leaks.
It was an eventful week for the nation’s chemical demilitarization
program.
Weapons processing at Anniston stopped this week while
crews performed what was described as “routine maintenance” at the plant
to support additional processing. Calls to plant officials were not immediately
returned.
Crews did destroy 56 projectiles and 263 gallons of
sarin on Friday, March 25 and prepared on Thursday to begin disposing of
overpacked eight-inch projectiles on Thursday. The facility had destroyed
56,234 weapons – 42,762 rockets and 13,472 eight-inch projectiles – through
Wednesday, and destroyed 66,769 gallons (607,598 pounds) of nerve agent.
Tuesday, disposal operations began at the Pine Bluff
Chemical Disposal Facility in Pine Bluff, Ark. The Pine Bluff Arsenal stores
about 12 percent of the nation’s chemical weapon stockpile. Crews went slowly
the first week, destroying six rockets through Wednesday.
“This deliberately slow and limited startup will ensure
the plant equipment and crew demonstrate the same proficiency in processing
actual rockets as they did when processing thousands of practice rockets,”
said Randy Long, the Army project site manager, in a prepared statement.
Crews in Tooele, Utah, destroyed 758 VX mines through
Wednesday, and destroyed 998,487 munitions and about 14.6 million pounds
of chemical agent in total. Workers on Thursday detected mustard vapor leaking
out of a 155 mm projectile. The round was isolated and moved into a special
storage area. Chuck Sprague, a spokesman for the facility, said Thursday
those leaks were “standard” as the weather gets warmer.
“Mustard freezes at very high temperatures,” Sprague
said. “It turns into a solid at 58 degrees Fahrenheit. If we have a real
low pressure where it drops (to a level) like you folks have with your tornadoes,
we’ll see an increase in leakers.”
Tooele is currently processing VX-filled mines. It will
not start mustard processing until next year.
The Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facility in Umatilla,
Ore., destroyed 889 GB-filled M55 rockets from March 20 to March 27. The
facility has destroyed 8,934 rockets and 94,000 pounds of material.
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