|
|
LOCAL NEWS
Abrams: Incinerator has removed most area chemical weapons risk
By Todd South
Star Staff Writer
12-16-2007
Half of all the United States' chemical weapons have been destroyed, the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announced Tuesday.
The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility has destroyed about 37 percent of the chemical weapons stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot since it began operations in August 2003, officials there say.
The potentially dangerous work of destroying weapons at the facility has overlapping management and supervisory oversight for nearly every aspect of the lengthy process.
Oversight coupled with a "willingness to stop" policy is what has kept complacency at bay, said Robert Love, project general manager for Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor in charge of operations for ANCDF.
"It's human nature, when you do the same task again and again, to get complacent," Love said. "And it's something that we're constantly monitoring."
Tim Garrett, site project manager for ANCDF, said many workers come from a production background, where making more is the top goal.
"We only process when everything is right," Garrett said. "If processing nothing on a day is because we're trying to get something right, that’s OK."
Finishing the job and maintaining safety are a balancing act where safety is the strongest counterweight for any decision, Garrett said.
"I always tell people we’ll finish when we finish," Love said while acknowledging the planned 2012 deadline to complete destruction.
The program began in April 1997 with the United States' entry into the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty to prohibit the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons, and to monitor their destruction.
As of July, the 182 member states to the treaty had destroyed more than 26,000 tons of chemical weapons.
That amounts to about 34 percent of the declared worldwide stockpile.
More than 16,000 tons were U.S.-stored munitions, which make up half the original stockpile weight.
ANCDF destroyed all GB-filled munitions in March and began destroying VX-filled rockets in June.
Mike Abrams, spokesman for the ANCDF, said the project is now processing 155 mm VX artillery shells.
With destruction of the rockets, 97 percent of danger to people off-site has been reduced, Abrams said.
The group could finish the shells by late 2008, and the next munitions to destroy are VX landmines, which will require a period of training and equipment adjustment, but would likely begin in early 2009.
Barring any complications ANCDF could start work on mustard-filled munitions in 2010.
About Todd South
Todd South covers Oxford, Lincoln and Munford for The Star. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia.
Contact Todd South
Phone: 256-235-3548
Fax: 256-241-1991
E-mail: tsouth@annistonstar.com