Our position: Accidents are raising legitimate questions about safety at Newport.

Nearly 500 gallons of caustic wastewater recently spilled at the Newport Chemical Depot in Western Indiana, where one of the world's most lethal chemicals is being destroyed. Oops.

The incident was the latest in a series of problems encountered during the Army's effort to neutralize 250,000 gallons of the Cold War-era weapon VX, which is so deadly that touching or inhaling a droplet the size of a pinhead could kill a person in minutes.

In June, shortly after destruction of VX began in chemical reactors where it is neutralized with a mixture of heated sodium hydroxide and water, about 30 gallons of the mixture spilled in a contained area. Officials learned the wastewater was more caustic than expected and was corroding the valves. Oops.

Authorities also discovered that batches of the neutralized VX that produce a wastewater called hydrolysate were flammable at far lower temperatures than had been predicted -- no small matter in a process involving heat. Oops.

Then in July, there was another small leak. Oops.

And now a major spill.

This project has the appearance of a learn-as-you-go experiment involving an enormously deadly nerve agent and a highly caustic and potentially flammable by-product in a system of leaky valves and reactors. Although no one has been hurt, and contractors have shut down the operation until they've fixed the problems, Hoosiers living nearby and downwind from the facility have reason for concern.

Only about 2.5 percent of the VX has been processed. Eventually the Army plans to truck the wastewater across Indiana to a DuPont plant in New Jersey for further treatment and disposal in the Delaware River.

Although the VX clearly needs to be destroyed, it is questionable that the Army yet has a plan to safely do so. Oops simply won't suffice anymore.