for more information contact:
Craig Williams: 859-986-7565

for immediate release: Thursday, September 26, 2002

The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences released a report today that provides scientific validation for the deployment of a non-incineration disposal technology at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot to destroy the cache of chemical weapons stored there.

The report, entitled "Analysis of Engineering Design Studies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot" is the latest in a series of evaluations undertaken by the NRC as part of their role in providing oversight to the Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program, a Department of Defense program directed by Congress in 1997 to "identify and demonstrate alternatives to incineration for assembled chemical weapons."

In this latest report on three successfully demonstrated ACWA alternatives, the NRC states, "The reverse assembly of munitions, followed by water or caustic hydrolysis of nerve or mustard agents and associated energetic materials, is a mature, safe, and effective method for initial treatment of the chemical weapons stored at Blue Grass Army Depot. It is ready for immediate implementation for the neutralization of energetics and agents."

"This report is the piece of the equation that we've all been waiting for as we move forward toward safe disposal," said Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, a coalition of organizations from weapons storage sites who oppose incineration. "For a long time in KY we've had overwhelming citizen support for alternatives and recently the Governor's Advisory Commission and our federal elected officials formally got on board. Now we have the science of the NRC to back up our position."

In June of this year, the Governor-appointed KY Citizens' Advisory Commission unanimously passed a resolution in favor of moving forward with any of the three ACWA alternatives and removing incineration from consideration. Then in July, the entire Kentucky US Congressional delegation also opposed incineration by endorsing the Commission's resolution.

"The throroughness of the NRC report will be powerful when the KY Advisory Commission makes it's recommendations to the Pentagon in October," said Williams. While the NRC does not compare the three proposed ACWA alternatives with one another or to the incineration option it does discuss the capabilities of each technology including their ability to deal with the secondary wastes that are generated--part of the "total solution" required by the ACWA program.

Although in the report, the NRC observed that there will be a "prolonged period of systemization" needed to ensure that all the unit operations of the alternatives integrate correctly in a full scale facility, Williams contends that this is a consideration which has been long known and understood by the ACWA managers.

"We have every confidence that the ACWA management team can address the integration issues properly as things progress," said Williams. "The ACWA team understands the alternative processes and has run an open and successful program. We applaud Senator Mitch McConnell's latest bill that will have experienced and trusted ACWA managers responsible for running the disposal program in KY instead of the Army's incineration office."

System integration problems at chemical weapons incinerators continue to plague Army managers even after 13 years of operations. Williams points out that "There have been over 160 modifications to the Alabama incinerator and over 600 engineering changes to the Oregon incinerator, and they both recently failed their trial burns. After more than a decade of experience in the Pacific and in Utah, they still haven't figured it out." This year both the Utah and Pacific incinerators were shut down and under investigation for months.

Williams concluded, "Here in Kentucky, we couldn't be happier but the CWWG wants to ensure that the good news in the NRC report reaches farther than the Blue Grass Depot and has a positive effect on efforts to stop the construction and operation of incinerators at other chemical weapons sites. There is no reason for any site to be stuck with an incinerator."

Copies of the executive summary of the NRC Report are available from the CWWG office.