Another milestone reached at incinerator

By Rob Jordan
Star Staff Writer
10-13-2004

Workers emptied the last remaining sarin-filled M55 rockets from the Anniston Chemical Activity’s storage igloos Tuesday, according to officials there. The Cold War-era munitions were moved to the nearby incinerator, where they will be burned, marking a significant milestone in the facility’s operation. Since the incinerator began operations more than a year ago, it has destroyed more than 40,000 M55 rockets. It will likely take until the end of the month or the beginning of November to destroy the remaining M55 rockets, of which fewer than 700 remain, according to Army spokesman Mike Abrams. All of the remaining rockets are either leaking or gelled, meaning that the agent has congealed over time and has become undrainable. While the incinerator processes about 14 gelled rockets an hour, overpacked leaking rockets are more complicated to handle, and are processed at a rate of between two and 40 a day, Abrams said. The incinerator disposed of the last non-leaking, drainable sarin-filled rockets this summer. After the final load of sarin-filled rockets has been burned, incinerator workers will shift operations to handle smaller agent-filled projectiles. That work will involve somewhat different processing techniques and the use of a third furnace. Burning through the remaining four million pounds of sarin, VX and blister agent in the stockpile will likely take until 2010, according to incinerator officials. Sarin, a nerve agent, is considered the most dangerous agent in the stockpile because it can travel long distances as an airborne vapor. While highly lethal, nerve agent VX is viscous and unlikely to travel far in the air. Blister agent is the stockpile’s least-dangerous component.

About Rob Jordan

Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star.