While permits have been granted and most plans are complete for construction of a plant to neutralize the chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot, not everyone favors the alternative that was agreed to after more than 20 years of controversy and research.

Toivo E. Puro, who has lived in Richmond for the past eight years, spent most of his career working with the design and manufacture of munitions, including the M55 nerve gas rockets among the stockpile of weapons waiting to be destroyed at the local depot.

Speaking to the Richmond chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons on Monday, Puro expressed his reservations about the neutralization of the chemical weapons, especially how the residue from neutralization will be treated.

William Smith, who spent most of his career working with Army depot security, told the AARP that he supports Puro's view. The two have been invited to share their views Thursday with a representative of Mitretek Systems, a contractor hired to assess the methods proposed for treating and disposing the by-products of neutralization.

From start to finish, incineration is the only method proven to be safe and effective for the complete destruction of chemical weapons, Puro and Smith believe.

The Army constructed nerve agent incinerators at depots in Alabama, Arkansas, Oregon, Utah and on Johnston Island in the central Pacific Ocean to destroy chemical agents, but plans for an incinerator in Madison County were dropped because of strong public opposition of an incinerator near populated areas.

No fatal accidents have been associated with operation of any U.S. nerve agent incinerator, Puro said. “It's more dangerous for incinerator employees to drive to and from work than to do their jobs.”

Puro's principal objection to neutralization centers around the proposed use of supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) to treat the toxic residue that remains after chemical agents are neutralized.

While the corrosive byproduct generated by neutralization is no longer “nerve agent,” it is still classified as hazardous waste and requires further treatment. SCWO combines the corrosive waste with water and subjects the mixture to intense heat and pressure to create “an environmentally benign substance,” according to a news release late last year from the National Academy of Sciences. “Methods designed to treat the secondary wastes” produced by neutralization are “immature and untested, for the most part,” the release acknowledged.

Such a corrosive mixture under temperatures as high as 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures as high as 3,600 pounds per square inch can cause the alloyed steel vessels used in SCWO to fail, Puro told the AARP.

While methods have been developed to alleviate problems associated with SCWO, a committee working for the National Research Council has recommended “additional testing to confirm that these remedies are adequate.”

The program manager of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives has commissioned Mitretek to assess possible solutions and alternatives.

If problems can be resolved, the pilot plant to be constructed at the Blue Grass Army Depot will be the first where chemical agent is neutralized and the waste detoxified in an “integrated process.” Off-site treatment of the wastes remains a possibility, however.

Puro, who turned 94 on Tuesday, began working on munitions for the U.S. Army early in World War II. After the war, he was employed by the Army's chemical corps and worked intimately, mostly at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, with nerve agent weapons during the Cold War arms race. He retired as an ordnance engineer in 1977. He recently documented his career and views about the use and destruction of chemical weapons in a book titled “Nerve Gas: The Quiet Peacekeeper.”

Smith, who was once in charge of surveillance (security) at the Blue Grass Army Depot and worked at other depot installations, retired in 1975.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.