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Processing resumed at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility this week, following a power loss late last month.
Crews at the facility destroyed 473 105-mm munitions
between Saturday and Wednesday. The facility has destroyed 68,963 weapons
and 78,161 gallons of chemical agent, about 16 percent of the total stockpile.
Weapons destruction stopped late last month after the
facility lost power during a thunderstorm and a backup system failed to come
on-line. Crews also worked to fix a temperature reading problem in the facility’s
Deactivation Furnace. Both issues have been resolved.
“We’re trying to move out smartly,” spokesman Mike Abrams
said. “We’ve not processed very much over the last several days, and now that
it appears that all the maintenance we have done has passed the various internal
inspections, it looks like we’re in good shape to start out smartly.”
The Anniston facility also was named Defense Project
of the Year by Washington Group International, the second straight year the
facility won the award. Ambrose Schwallie, president of Washington’s Defense
Business Unit, said in a statement that the ANCDF “was a model for safety
and conduct of operations.”
Processing continued at other sites around the country
this week.
The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Umatilla,
Ore., destroyed 542 sarin-filled rockets and 8,862 pounds of agent between
Thursday and Wednesday. The facility has destroyed 26,152 rockets and 276,316
pounds of sarin.
The Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Pine
Bluff, Ark., destroyed 702 sarin-filled rockets and 10,688 pounds of agent
Aug. 2-8. The facility had two stoppages during that period, due to maintenance
work and the liquid incinerator at the facility being full.
Processing has stopped at the Newport Chemical Agent
Disposal Facility in Newport, Ind., and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal
Facility in Tooele, Utah.
Officials at Newport, where processing has been stopped
since June 10 due to maintenance and ongoing problems with a byproduct created
by weapons destruction, said this week they expect to resume weapons disposal
in late August or early September.
Crews are retooling machinery at Tooele to start the
processing of blister agent next spring.
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