Anniston Star
August 21, 2003

Rocket destruction resumes at incinerator

By Nathan Solheim
Star Staff Writer
08-21-2003

Destruction of chemical weapons resumed Wednesday at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

Army workers destroyed 81 M55 rockets after draining them of GB nerve agent, bringing to 192 the number of rockets destroyed since the incinerator’s Aug. 9 startup.

Army spokesman Mike Abrams said the facility is still at least three weeks away from processing the drained nerve agent in its liquid incinerator. Some residual agent is destroyed as the rockets are burned.

Nerve agent must be collected in large amounts and then destroyed for the liquid incinerator to work properly, Army officials have said.

The facility could start processing rockets day and night soon, Abrams said, because all four work crews now have had some experience with the process.

Destruction of rockets was temporarily halted Tuesday so workers could replace a faulty valve that mixed fuel for the deactivation furnace, the furnace that destroys the rockets.

Abrams said the incinerator has processed munitions during eight of the past 11 days.