Friday, February 06, 2004
A chemical
arms warning
NRC wants decaying material
watched closely
By Lee Davidson
Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — The National Research
Council called Thursday for the Army to more aggressively monitor the condition
of slowly decaying chemical arms stored at Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot
and at seven other bases nationally.
It says the Army should expand
monitoring to help identify trends to predict when leaks are likely, and said
efforts so far have yielded few clues. It says that increases risk to the
public — and to workers who will eventually destroy those arms.
"Because these munitions are leaking
and degrading over time, they increase risk to the general public, the environment
and especially workers at the storage sites," said Peter Lederman, a retired
professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who chaired a special
committee reviewing the monitoring and storage of the arms.
"The Army should regularly monitor
the stockpile to spot possible trends, such as increased frequency of leaks,
and to make corrections at the earliest possible time," he said.
The Army sponsored the study by
the research council, an independent institution formed by Congress to provide
scientific advice to the nation.
The Deseret Chemical Depot near
Tooele has already incinerated about half of the munitions that were stored
there, including all GB nerve agent, also called Sarin. However, it is in
the process of destroying other munitions with VX nerve agent and mustard
gas.
Among findings of the new report
is that the Army sampling program has been "biased toward munitions and containers
holding GB agent," and that may have led the Army to incorrectly assume
that leaks with deadly VX are relatively rare.
However, the report said, "One
concern is that the stabilizer (used to slow decay) in VX munition may be
dropping to critical levels" — meaning many more VX leaks may soon be possible,
which is scary since a pinhead-size drop of VX is enough to kill.
"The Army should verify that VX
leaks are much less frequent than GB leaks by monitoring VX munitions and
containers more closely," the report said.
Also, the council says scientists
suspect that leaks may increase with temperature — but the Army has not kept
track of storage temperatures. It said the Army should do that now, and look
for possible ties and trends.
Another problem the report identified
is that "pressurized hydrogen gas has formed from mustard agent degradation
in some munitions and containers. This can present a significant risk to
workers during disposal operations."
It called for steps to reduce that
risk, saying "special safety measures are required during disposal of mustard
agent munitions to minimize the risk of hydrogen gas exploding."
Also, because scientists have shown
that degradation of munitions first occurs slowly for a long period but then
accelerates rapidly, the report recommends "the earliest possible destruction
of all agents at all sites."
Lederman said, "The ongoing degradation
of these munitions is at present only a minor contributor to the risks from
storage of these weapons."
But, he added, "Such degradation will continue, and the extent to which leaks and other anomalous conditions will happen is difficult to predict. The swift destruction of the munitions is ultimately the only effective way to reduce risks to the public."
E-mail: lee@desnews.com