Assistant Metro Editor
The facility is in shakedown, which means workers are fine-tuning and working out kinks in the destruction process for gelled rockets. Because gelled rockets have nerve agent that has thickened to a custard-like consistency, the process is more difficult than destroying munitions with liquefied agent, incinerator officials say.
The result of the process has been a slowdown in the disposal of chemical weapons stored at Anniston Army Depot.
“To the casual observer or critic it may not look significant, but we are not trying to impress anyone,” said Army spokesman Mike Abrams. “We’re trying to make sure what we’re doing is safe and we personally do not have a lot of hands-on experience with the gelled and crystalline rockets, so we’ll purposely go slow.”
Since Aug. 9, workers at the incinerator have been destroying tons of Cold War-era M-55 rockets filled with GB nerve agent, or sarin.
M-55 rocket destruction was stopped earlier this month after officials completed critical tests, or agent trial burns, of the incinerator’s effectiveness. The tests determine how fast the facility can destroy rockets and how effectively the facility protects the environment under two sets of federal laws.
Officials said Thursday no M-55 rockets will be destroyed during shakedown for gelled rockets.
The facility has destroyed 15,158 rockets since August – a fraction of the overall stockpile – and 16,736 gallons of liquid agent.
In the current process, officials are gearing up for trial burns on gelled rockets, which the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said in a recent public notice should begin no earlier than Jan. 12.
Incinerator officials also have taken time over the past weeks for maintenance activities, which have little connection to gelled rocket destruction, Abrams said.
“I do not believe it’s cause and effect, it’s more coincidental than anything else,” Abrams said.
Gelled rockets are harder to destroy because the thickened agent takes more time to dispose of. Officials are aiming to destroy between nine and 14 gelled rockets per hour.