Local News
March 10, 2010
DOD HAS NOT MADE DECISION ABOUT WEAPONS
CDCAB hears clarification of detonation chamber option
Senior News Writer
RICHMOND — Contrary to an Associated Press news story published by the Richmond Register and many other newspapers around the county, the defense department has made no final decision to destroy problematic mustard agent artillery projectiles stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, said Jeff Brubaker, the government’s site manager for the project to destroy the chemical weapons stored there.
He spoke during a break in the quarterly meeting Tuesday of the Chemical Destruction Citizens Advisory Board at Eastern Kentucky University.
Given the problems that other depots have encountered with destroying similar mustard weapons, some from the same production lot as those stored here, destroying them in detonation chambers, a long-proven technology, likely will be the most practical alternative, Brubaker said.
The denotation chambers are relatively small, mobile devices in which an explosive charge would be set off to consume a single artillery round containing mustard, a blister agent, said Craig Williams, CDCAB co-chair, who briefed the panel on the issue. The local project could use one of four types of detonation chambers, he said. Depots in Toole, Utah, and Anniston, Ala., where chemical agent weapons are being destroyed by incineration are each using a different EDT technology to destroy problematic mustard-agent shells, he said.
Because the Blue Grass Army Depot will be the last to have its chemical weapons destroyed, the local project will have the benefit of the other depots’ experience with the technology, if and when a choice is made to use it here, Williams said.
Although the Defense Department is considering EDT to destroy the few nerve-agent artillery rounds now packed in individual air-tight cylinders to contain leaks, some members of the CDCAB committee examining the issue oppose it, Williams said.
If the purpose of the Associated Press editors who used sensational wording, such as “blowing up” chemical weapons in a widely published news story that also referenced nerve agent weapons was to garner attention, they succeeded, Williams said.
While the story by a Louisville-based AP writer was “on-point and accurate,” Williams said, AP editors apparently decided language in his article was not “sexy or catastrophic enough.” They made revisions that were used as the basis for some startling headlines in many newspapers around the country and abroad that gave the impression nerve-agent would be exploded “out in an open field,” Williams said.
Williams said he was contacted by military veterans of the first Gulf War who may have been exposed to nerve agent when the U.S. military exploded an Iraqi facility that likely contained chemical weapons.
Williams said he and Brubaker launched “a very intentional media campaign” in central Kentucky to clarify the issue.
If there is a lack of bi-partisanship in Washington, D.C., it does not apply to the Kentucky Congressional delegation when it comes to chemical weapons destruction, Williams said, moving on to other topics. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, and Rep. Ben Chandler, D-KY, and other members of the delegation are in agreement that the Madison County depot’s chemical weapons must be safely destroyed as soon as possible, Williams said.
In the past, “It has been a struggle” for the depot to get adequate funding for chemical weapons destruction,” Williams said.
McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans, had to use the full force of his seniority and leadership position to secure funding, Williams said. However, since 2008, the Defense Department has remained committed to full funding, and more than $200 million has been appropriated for the current year and is committed for next year to Kentucky operations of the Alternative Chemical Weapons Alternative program to destroy the weapons by chemical neutralization. To date, about $800 million has been spent on the project.
The next CDCAB meeting is June 8.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.