Anniston Star
October 12, 2003

Incinerator may resume operations Monday

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
10-12-2003

The Anniston chemical weapons incinerator still is down for repairs, as it has been since Sept. 28.

Workers have been figuring out problems with the heated discharge conveyor, which carries chopped-up, incinerated rocket parts to waste bins, while keeping them hot to destroy any remaining chemical agent.

They plan to replace a chain that operates the conveyor, said Mike Abrams, spokesman for the Anniston Chemical Weapons Disposal Facility.

“That, I guess, has been the overriding issue in the facility these past few days,” Abrams said.

Operations may resume Monday, he said.

The incinerator was built to destroy thousands of tons of nerve and blister agent weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot.

Since Aug. 9, the facility as been processing M55 rockets filled with GB nerve agent, or sarin. The rockets are punctured, drained of nerve agent, cut up and burned in a furnace.

The sarin, which is so toxic that a drop on the skin can kill a person, is being burned in bulk in another furnace.

So far, the facility has destroyed 4,701rockets and 5,037 gallons of sarin, Abrams said. It is expected to take several years to destroy all the weapons.

Abrams said he did not know whether there were similar conveyor problems at two other chemical weapons incinerators, one in Utah and one that used to be on Johnston Atoll.

“I have not heard whether or not this is a programmatic problem, or if this is particular to Anniston,” he said, noting that the chain had been in use for two years, even though live operations began this summer. “It could be a bad chain, or maybe it was installed differently at the other two sites.”