WEAPONS DISPOSAL HALTED AT ARSENAL

By Amy Riggin/THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, January 13, 2005 10:04 AM CST

WHITE HALL — Officials at the Pine Bluff Arsenal announced Thursday that chemical weapons incineration will be put on hold for several months.

Crews at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility will be replacing piping in its pollution abatement system during coming months in order to enhance the overall efficiency of the system.

Disposal operations are expected to resume in May, once the piping replacement is complete, officials said.

Neither rockets nor agent will be processed while the work is being done. The facility began incinerating M55 rockets containing the nerve agent GB, or sarin, last March.

Since the start of operations, the facility has used fiberglass-reinforced plastic piping in the pollution abatement system, which consists of plastic embedded with fiberglass resin.

The existing pipe will be replaced with piping made from a metallic alloy that is like stainless steel. Similar piping replacements have been accomplished at disposal sites in Umatilla, Ore., and Anniston, Ala.

“The replacement pipe is made from a material more durable for handling the cleansing solutions used in the pollution abatement system,” said Randy Long, the facility’s site project manager. “We have been planning this outage for months and we are confident that once it is completed the system should operate more efficiently by requiring less routine maintenance.”

The pollution abatement system cools and cleans exhaust gases from the furnaces that incinerate chemical weapons and agent. It is designed to protect workers, the community and the environment from the emission of harmful pollutants.

Raini Wright, spokeswoman for the facility, said the new piping was not required by law.

“This is being done voluntarily in order to enhance the efficiency of the system,” she said.

The facility had successfully completed processing a significant portion of the chemical weapons inventory prior to this system enhancement.

Wright said rockets have not been processed since Tuesday and no agent has been incinerated since Wednesday.

As of Tuesday evening, the GB rocket-processing total was more than 34,000 and, Wednesday evening, the GB agent-processing total was more than 350,000 pounds.

The GB M55 rockets will be disposed of in the first disposal campaign followed by the VX rockets, the VX land mines and finally the HD/HT bulk containers.