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| Anniston chemical weapons incinerator workers start processing a sarin-filled projectile Thursday. Photo: Special to The Star |
Workers had been retooling the plant since Oct. 30 to handle the projectiles, which hold anywhere from under two pounds to almost 15 pounds each of deadly nerve agent. The heavy-gauge projectiles, in storage since the 1960s, originally were manufactured for tank and howitzer cannons.
Tim Garrett, the Army’s site project manager at the incinerator, credited incinerator workers, whom he called “truly heroes,” with the smooth changeover.
As part of a gradual ramp up, workers Thursday afternoon loaded the first set of projectiles into a device that removes explosive charges and fuses. Today, the projectiles will be moved to the second stage, in which a machine extracts the explosive housings and drains sarin from the projectiles. Saturday, the empty projectiles will be pushed into a furnace where temperatures up to 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit will burn off remaining sarin residue.
Birmingham Pipe will collect the decontaminated parts and melt them down for pipe, according to Bob Love, project manger for Westinghouse, the contractor in charge of operations at the incinerator.
Garrett said it would take about a week to collect enough drained sarin to begin burning off the agent in a special furnace for liquids.
Processing will first target the largest projectiles, which weigh about 200 pounds, are about three feet long and are eight inches in diameter. Workers will then re-calibrate equipment for smaller projectiles.
Because the automation involved is significantly more sophisticated than that used with rocket processing, the equipment will require more regular maintenance, Garrett and Love said. The added upkeep will not increase the risk to workers however, Love said, because most of it will be done in areas requiring relatively low levels of protection.
Garrett said he was hopeful the plant would destroy all sarin-filled projectiles by November 2005. At that time, the plant will move to processing VX-filled rockets.
Since firing up in August 2003, the incinerator has destroyed 42,738 rockets and approximately 47,033 gallons or 427,534 pounds of liquid sarin – about 49 percent of the stockpile’s sarin and about 9 percent of all agent in the stockpile, according to the Army.
Officials estimate it will take until 2010 to destroy the 4 million pounds of sarin, VX and blister agent that remain in the Anniston Chemical Activity’s stockpile.
