DISPOSAL SLATED FOR NEXT WEEK

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

After years of debate and millions of dollars of research and testing, the Pine Bluff Arsenal announced Tuesday it will begin incinerating its aging stockpile of chemical weapons next week.

The first weapons to be destroyed are M55 rockets filled with GB, or sarin, nerve agent.

On Monday, two of those rockets will be transported from a storage igloo to the facility, where they will be processed by incineration on Tuesday.

"We have confirmed the readiness of our plant, processes and people to begin safe and environmentally sound disposal operations," Randy Long, the facility's site manager, said in a statement Tuesday. "Our plan is to start slowly, gradually increasing the rate of processing to ensure successful operations for the life cycle of the project."

The Arsenal stores 12 percent of the country's chemical weapons stockpile, the second largest in the nation, which contains 3,850 tons of chemical agent. The first campaign will process sarin-filled rockets, followed by rockets containing VX nerve agent, VX land mines and, lastly, ton containers of mustard agent.

Army officials estimate that it will take about five years to eliminate the entire stockpile, none of which was produced at the Arsenal. The mustard agent was brought here in the 1940s, the rockets and land mines containing nerve agents in the 1960s.

Completed in November 2002, the disposal facility is a 26-acre complex that cost $500 million to construct. Long said it is expected to cost $1.7 billion to operate during its entire life cycle.

Pine Bluff's facility was the last incinerator to be built in the U.S. and will be the fifth stockpile site to use incineration. The next site expected to begin operations this spring is the Newport Chemical Depot at Indiana, which will use neutralization to dispose of VX nerve agent stored in ton containers.

The facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but will only transport chemical weapons during daylight hours.

The chemical agents will be drained from the munitions and incinerated at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. Munition components will then be destroyed in a separate deactivation furnace. Lastly, any remaining materials such as ton containers will be thermally cleaned in a metal parts furnace.

The United States is disposing of its chemical weapons stockpile under the guidelines of the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty ratified by 65 countries that came into force in 1997. The original provisions of the treaty show a deadline of 2007 with an opportunity to extend to 2012.

In response to environmental concerns about emissions from the incinerator, Army officials tout a pollution abatement system that filters out 99.9999 percent of emissions.