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Thursday, September 09, 2004

Glitch fails to halt burn

By AMYJO BROWN of the East Oregonian
ajbrown@eastoregonian.com



Army spokesperson Mary Binder holds up a simulant, used to illustrate the color and consistency of the nerve agent GB sarin, during a press conference at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston Wednesday. The Army began destroying the chemical munitions stockpile at the Umatilla Depot Wednesday, starting with one M55 rocket containing GB sarin gas. Staff photo by E.J. Harris
HERMISTON — The first M55 rocket filled with deadly sarin was incinerated Wednesday at the Umatilla Chemical Depot after a glitch temporarily halted operations for about four hours.

The depot, which stores more than 7.4 million pounds of nerve and blister agents in a variety of bombs, land mines and bulk containers, is the fifth Army site to begin destroying its stockpile of chemical weapons. It has 12 percent of the country’s supply.

The incineration process began Wednesday morning at 9:29 a.m. after two workers, Paul Cook of Hermiston and Corey Grabeel of the Tri-Cities, lifted the 60 pound M55 rocket from a wooden pallet onto a conveyor belt.

Operators in a control room then mechanically moved the rocket to an enclosed room where it was punched with three holes and drained of its liquid. About a gallon of sarin was collected and will likely be burned in about a month, which is when officials estimate they will have enough drained agent to destroy in one of the facility’s two liquid incinerators.

From the draining station, the rocket went toward a blade meant to chop it into eight pieces. But, after the first slice and about an hour into the process, a gate refused to slide and allow the fuse of the rocket to fall into a furnace.

 At around 2:30 p.m. workers rigged a temporary fix that allowed processing of the rocket to continue.

Later, they found a red emergency stop button had accidentally been pressed in, keeping the gate from opening. The button was reset and rocket processing will continue today, said Mary Binder, spokesperson for the Army at the depot.

Workers were disappointed that their first day wasn’t flawless, said Don Barclay, site manager for the Army, but he said everyone’s spirits were up.

“These things are going to happen,” Barclay said.

Barclay, looking tired and admitting he had been up since 2:30 that morning, unable to sleep, said he tried to keep tension in the control room to a minimum.

Before the rocket was on the conveyor belt, Barclay held up hand-written signs to cameras sending video to media gathered to watch the processing. Some gave short updates on what workers were doing. One said “Hi, Mom” and “please send money.”

“That was for my workforce,” Barclay said. “I tried to lighten the mood when I could.”

He said that prior to moving the rocket, the atmosphere in the room was busy, with everyone chatting. But the minute the rocket was on the conveyor rollers people got very quiet and serious.

When the trouble with the slide gate became apparent, Barclay said everyone silently grimaced but then immediately began trouble-shooting.

“It was so comforting to see a normal reaction to a mechanical failure,” he said.

In the meantime, workers continued to prepare for further processing. They moved two additional pallets of 15 M55 rockets from a storage structure in the K Block on the depot to the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, about a half mile in distance.

One rocket, possibly two, will be processed today.

Although the disposal facility is designed to process 40 rockets an hour, processing the first few months will be slow — a few rockets each day, Barclay said.

It will take 18 months to two years to destroy the more than 90,000 rockets filled with sarin nerve agent stored at the depot. Afterward, the disposal facility will be adjusted to begin processing munitions filled with VX nerve agent. The depot’s supply of mustard blister agent, which is about two-thirds of the total chemical agent on the depot, will be processed last.

The total destruction of the stockpile is expected to be completed in 2012.