ARSENAL TEST BURN USING SUBSTITUTES

By The Commercial Staff

Test burns at a chemical weapons incinerator at the Pine Bluff Arsenal began Monday.

At 12:25 p.m. Monday, the Washington Demilitarization Co. began the trial burn of two substitute chemical compounds in the Deactivation Furnace System at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

Instead of using actual chemical weapons in the testing, the Arsenal is using chemical compounds that officials say are more difficult to destroy and are designed to show whether the furnace is working properly.

WDC is under contract with the Army to build, test, operate and close the PBCDF at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. Burning of actual chemical weapons could begin in April.

The testing is geared to determine whether the switches, valves and other parts that run the furnace are operating correctly.

Two test compounds -- monochlorobenzene (MCB) and hexachloroethane (HCE) -- were chosen for burning because they are thermally and chemically stable compounds that are more difficult to destroy than the actual stockpiled chemical agent, a spokesman at the Arsenal said. Every hour for four hours, 912 pounds of the mixture was fed into the incinerator, officials said. The test will be repeated three more times.

MCB is a colorless liquid, with a mild almond-like odor, commonly used for degreasing automobile parts and to make other chemicals, such as pesticides.

HCE is a colorless solid, with a camphor-like odor, used in smoke-producing devices and in the manufacture of aluminum. Because HCE is 90 percent chlorine, it also will help test the facility's Pollution Abatement System for acid gas removal.

"These tests are based on guidance developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which calls for removal of a minimum of 99.9999 percent of all toxic materials from air emissions ... prior to release into the environment," said Ron Garner, project manager for WDC.

The deactivation furnace will burn off remaining GB or VX nerve agent from pieces of rockets and land mines that have already been drained.

PBCDF also has two other incinerators -- the liquid incinerator and the metal parts furnace. The liquid incinerator underwent surrogate trial burns in June, and the metal parts furnace is scheduled for similar testing in January.

The liquid incinerator will destroy the liquid chemical agent component of stockpiled rockets, mines and other containers via high-temperature incineration. The metal parts furnace will destroy any residual chemical agent that remains on metal components of the weapons and containers.

PBCDF will use incineration technology to destroy 3,850 tons of chemical weapons (approximately 12 percent of the original U.S. stockpile) currently stored at the Arsenal. The United States is destroying the weapons in accordance with an international treaty.