| Rocket processing resumes
at Depot By the East Oregonian HERMISTON -- Rocket processing is scheduled to resume today in Explosive Containment Room (ECR) B at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. The room had been shut down following an April 5 fire involving an M55 rocket that had been drained of its GB sarin chemical agent. A root cause analysis team was formed to review possible contributing factors and actions that might reduce the frequency or intensity of fires. The team oversaw repairs to the containment room and worked to identically calibrate both ECRs. The facility has experienced 12 rocket fires since processing began in September 2004. All fires have occurred while engineering controls were in place, which contained the fires and chemical agents in the ECRs, ensuring no harm to workers, the public or the environment. Like the other instances, the April 5 fire started on the fifth of seven shears. The fifth shear cuts through the rocket propellant chamber. Rockets are chopped into eight pieces before being dropped into an incinerator. Following previous rocket fires, the Army conducted an extensive investigation that suggested the fires ignited due to the shear blade striking particles of rocket fuel. Through midnight Tuesday, the facility has destroyed 62,304 M55 rockets, or 68 percent of the depot's stockpile of M55 rockets containing the GB sarin chemical agent. Line A processed 528 rockets Wednesday and another 112 had been processed by 6:30 this morning. Jim Hackett, spokeperson for the depot, said after the GB sarin M55 rockets are destroyed, the depot will begin processing GB VX rockets. Hackett said the B line eventually will be used to process what are called "leakers," which are rockets that give off small amounts of GB sarin gas vapors. Hackett explained depot workers use a sophisticated detection system in mobile monitoring laboratory vehicles. The vehicles employ a hose that connects to an igloo storing rockets and then monitors the gas levels. It's a very low-level monitoring system, Hackett said. "We check it before it reaches the liquid stage in most situations." If workers find a higher-than-expected reading, they enter the igloo to obtain the culprit rocket, which they then separate from other rockets and store in a container. This in turn is taken to one of two igloos that hold these "problem children," Hackett said. Workers then monitor these more closely, he said. Leakers are "a very small minority" of the depot's rockets, Hackett said, and destroying them is a slower process. So far, 59 out of 116 GB sarin M55 leakers have been destroyed. |
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