Anniston Star
September 1, 2003

Burning agent: Incinerator destroys 800 gallons of sarin

By Nathan Solheim
Star Staff Writer
09-01-2003

In what officials called a benchmark for the Anniston Army Depot’s chemical weapons incinerator, Army workers began burning 800 gallons of GB nerve agent early Sunday afternoon.

The operation represented the first mass destruction of nerve agent since the incinerator began processing M55 rockets Aug. 9.

Officials started pumping deadly GB nerve agent into the Anniston Chemical Disposal Facility’s liquid incinerator at approximately 1:55 p.m. and expected to keep burning the nerve agent into the night and finish by about 5 a.m. today.

Though small amounts of nerve agent have already been destroyed during the incineration of M55 rockets, Sunday’s operation represented another step in the Army’s mission to bring the incinerator up to full speed.

"The crews performed marvelously," said Army project manager Tim Garrett. "They had a good grasp on the operation and they were proceeding in a deliberate manner. That is what we’re stressing — a deliberate, cautious manner."

Garrett said workers started burning 30-35 gallons of GB nerve agent, or sarin, per hour, in a 2,700-degree furnace.

Officials eventually would like to incinerate 500 gallons of agent per hour, but only would approach 200-250 gallons per hour during this operation, said Army spokesman Mike Abrams.

Army officials started Sunday because the long weekend gave them a chance to continue into Monday, if needed, Abrams said.

At press time, there was no indication the process to destroy the GB was delayed.

"We expect to destroy everything we plan to destroy by early morning," Abrams said.

Abrams said the Army wasn’t likely to resume processing rockets Monday.

Through Friday, Army workers had destroyed 900 GB-filled M55 rockets out of thousands at the depot. The figure represents a fraction of the 2,254 tons of Cold War-era chemical weapons stored in igloos at the Anniston Army Depot.

Army officials have collected the agent from processing rockets for the past three weeks, and said they waited to start the liquid incinerator in order to collect enough agent to operate the liquid incinerator safely and efficiently.

For the time being, Army officials will destroy bulk chemical agent after 6 p.m. and before 6 a.m. and only on weekends. Eventually, they’ll process chemical weapons 24 hours per day.

"It’s a brand new operation and it’s consistent with our overall plan to begin by emphasizing safety aspects of our new phase of operations," Abrams said. "We wanted everyone concentrating on liquid incineration operations and not be distracted by anything else."