ARSENAL HALTS WORK AFTER OREGON FIRES

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, May 20, 2005 9:51 AM CDT

The Pine Bluff Arsenal suspended incineration of chemical weapons for the second time in 10 days because of a small fire at a similar operation in Oregon.

The Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility suspended incineration of GB (sarin) M55 rockets Wednesday afternoon after processing 230 of them that day, Raini K. Wright, public affairs officer for the PBCDF, said Thursday.

The Arsenal stopped production after being informed of a small fire at a rocket processing facility at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility at Umatilla, Ore.

The Umatilla plant was also destroying GB M55 rockets, the same kind being incinerated at the Arsenal, where a similar fire occurred May 11, Wright said.

The Arsenal fire lasted approximately two minutes and was quickly extinguished by the facility's sprinkler system, Wright said.

The Arsenal notified the general public of the fire a week after it occurred.

Bob Love, acting project manager for the contractor conducting the incineration work at the Arsenal, decided to stop operations Wednesday after learning of the fire at Umatilla, according to a news release from the Arsenal on Thursday.

The same contractor, Washington Group International, is handling the work at both sites.

Washington Group is investigating the Umatilla fire and is sending experts from Pine Bluff to participate. Arsenal officials and the Washington Group are waiting to resume work until they are comfortable they understand what happened at Umatilla and can make the process safe in Arkansas, the news release said.

"We are trying to incorporate some lessons learned at that area," Wright said.

Arsenal officials will also continue their investigation into the May 11 fire.

According to Wright, the M55 rockets are cut into eight pieces, but pieces six and seven ignited.

"(We) need to find out why the rockets are catching fire," she said.

Wright said she could not give a date when incineration would resume.

"That has not been determined yet," she said.

The spokeswoman said the public was notified a day after the suspension because incineration didn't stop until Wednesday afternoon and Arsenal officials "had to make some management decisions."

Since the start of chemical weapons disposal began in March, 1,223 nerve agent GB rockets have been destroyed and 8,768 pounds of the GB nerve agent have been incinerated at the Arsenal.

Before incineration began, the Arsenal housed 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile and the second largest store of the nerve agent sarin in the nation.

The first campaign of munitions to be destroyed at the site consists of M55 rockets. The Arsenal must dispose of about 90,000 of those rockets -- the largest number stored at any of the eight stockpile sites in the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.