Analysis: Returning byproduct to VX considered impractical
By LAWRENCE HAJNA
Courier-Post Staff
The Army on Tuesday released an analysis it says demonstrates that neutralized
VX cannot be reformulated into the deadly nerve agent as environmentalists
opposed to its shipment to South Jersey contend.
The Army asked Mitretek Systems of Falls Church, Va., to analyze a study by Northwestern University environmental engineering professor Bruce E. Rittman, who concluded the waste product could, "at least in principle," be reformed into VX.
The Army plans to destroy VX nerve agent stored at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana and send the resulting wastewater, known as hydrolysate, to a treatment plant at DuPont's Chambers Works chemical plant site in Salem County. DuPont would discharge the treated wastewater into the Delaware River.
Environmentalists, however, fear terrorists could hijack shipments of hydrolysate from Indiana and reformulate it into VX, one of the deadliest substances ever made.
"It's possible, under right conditions, that VX could be reformulated by someone who got their hands on it," said Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
She said other scientists have raised similar concerns about reformulation of hydrolysate, including the National Research Council.
Mitretek, a nonprofit scientific research company, stated that neutralization standards set by the Army "ensure (constituent compounds) produced in the destruction of chemical weapons cannot be recovered for potential reuse."
Still, it notes that although it is "theoretically possible to remanufacture
VX using the components of Newport hydrolysate, this is a very remote possibility
and a rather impractical approach."
It adds that "recovery and remanufacture would be extremely difficult without a small chemical facility of some sophistication."
Officials in Montgomery County, Ohio, asked Rittman to review the Army's VX destruction process at a time when the Department of Defense still planned to send the hydrolysate to a commercial treatment facility in Dayton. Local officials killed the plan.
The Mitretek review remains relevant to the current debate over sending the waste product to DuPont's Secure Environmental Treatment facility, said Jeff Lindblad, spokesman for the Army's Chemical Materials Agency.
The agency accelerated chemical-weapons destruction plans after 9/11.
"We wanted to ensure, from a third party, that the wastewater is safe and can be safely treated by a commercial disposal facility," Lindblad said.
In general, Rittman found the Army's VX neutralization process "has sound scientific foundation." However, he found numerous technical discrepancies, which Mitretek disputed.
Rittman only dealt with the VX reformulation issue briefly, noting it could be reformed if the pH level of hydrolysate were decreased significantly.
"The most likely means by which a significant pH drop could occur is be addition of a strong acid, which would be a deliberate action," Rittman wrote.
The Army hopes to begin neutralizing the VX in June by mixing it with a solution of hot sodium hydroxide and hot water.
The material would likely be trucked via I-80 through Ohio and Pennsylvania to the New Jersey Turnpike, then south to DuPont, which is adjacent to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Reach Lawrence Hajna at (856) 486-2466 or lhajna@courierpostonline.com