Anniston Star
August 29, 2003

Army plans sarin burns for Sunday

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
08-29-2003

The Army plans to begin burning about 800 pounds of sarin nerve agent at the Anniston chemical weapons facility Sunday.

It will be the first time the deadly chemical agent is incinerated in quantity here.

An Army official also said Thursday that possible causes had been found for several recent false alarms in the facility’s agent detection system. The alarms were partly responsible for halting operations for two days last week.

“We’ve narrowed it down to a couple of different things,” said Mike Abrams, spokesman for the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. “There was some diesel exhaust on at least one alarm.”

Chemical involved in some roof work may also have set off some internal agent detectors, he said.

Chemical agent has been drained from more than 700 M55 rockets over the past three weeks.

The rockets, containing residual amounts of sarin, or GB, were cut up and incinerated. The drained agent has been stored in large tanks in what Army official refer to as the “heart” of the facility.

The Army has said the chemical agent would only be burned at night or on weekends until certain schools and community centers in the area are equipped with special protective systems.

About 40 gallons of sarin has been burned with the rocket pieces, Abrams said.

“There’s no way to measure it to the ounce, what has gone into the deactivation furnace,” he said.

Sunday afternoon, the accumulated agent will be sprayed into a liquid furnace that burns at 2,700 degrees.

The furnace can process hundreds of gallons of agent per hour, Abrams said, but the facility will begin at half-speed.

“It may take us around 12 hours,” Abrams said. “We’re starting slow and deliberately.”

By Thursday afternoon, the facility had processed 719 rockets. They are among the more than 660,000 chemical weapons stored in earth-covered bunkers at the Anniston Army Depot.

Anniston is home to about 10 percent of the nation’s chemical weapons stockpile. The munitions have been here since the 1960s, and will be destroyed over the next several years.