Pine Bluff Commercial
May 15, 2003

ARSENAL CONTRACT AWARDED

By Scott Loftis/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

A Louisiana-based company has been awarded a $7.4 million contract to demolish a binary munitions plant at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

Officials with the Army's Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program announced Wednesday that Stone & Webster Inc., will be the prime contractor for destruction of the plant. The demolition is scheduled to begin in October and continue through April 2007.

The binary munitions plant, officially called the Integrated Binary Production Facility, was built over several years beginning in the 1980s and ending in 1991.

Binary munitions contain two non-lethal chemicals that mix together in flight to form a lethal nerve agent.

The binary munitions plant ceased operations in 1993 after bilateral agreements between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

In April 1997, the U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, a broad multi-lateral agreement that mandated destruction of various chemical weapons production facilities, including the Arsenal's binary munitions plant.

The international treaty stipulates that the U.S. must eliminate its remaining chemical materiel and former production facilities by April 2007.

Stone & Webster Inc. is a part of The Shaw Group Inc., an international conglomerate headquartered at Baton Rouge, La.