Nitroglycerin seems to be the cause of nine recent fires at two chemical weapons disposal facilities in the United States, according to preliminary results released Thursday by the Army. Assessments also indicate that deadly weapons being stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot are not a safety risk while being stored or handled.

All fires have been associated only with rockets involved in the shearing/disposal process. It will not be until 2006 that ground is broken for a weapons destruction plant at the depot, but the M55 rockets involved in recent fires will be the first to be destroyed, said Dick Sloan, public information officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity. The depot is the home to 77,000 M55 rockets that are part of an arsenal slated for destruction.

While yet to be confirmed as the root cause of the increase frequency of fires, nitroglycerin is very sensitive and a potential cause of the fires when pinched between the steel case and rocket grain during shearing operations.

Preliminary conclusions on the tests conducted to date show a migration of diluted nitroglycerin in all nine cases.

This is an ongoing part of the U.S. Chemical Materials Agency rocket task force as it continues to perform an in-depth investigation into fires that occurred in April and May during the disposal of M55 rockets at Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon and Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Arkansas.

The fires occurred while processing drained GB nerve agent-filled M55 rockets in an explosive containment room designed specifically to contain such an event.

Michael Parker, director of the U.S. Chemical Materials Agency, appointed Gregory St. Pierre, director of the agency's risk management, to lead the rocket task force.

"I cannot stress enough that these are preliminary results," Pierre said. "The jury is still out as we prepare to look at and contrast these test results with the Pine Bluff samples. At this point, we are dealing in conjecture. More samples will provide more insight, but a progress update to our interested stakeholders is certainly warranted."

The rocket task force includes a mix of experts from CMA, Washington Group International (WGI), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Southwest Research Institute, Sandia National Laboratory, EG&G, and the U.S. Army Armament Engineering and Technology Center.

For more information about the assessments being done at Umatilla and Pine Bluff, visit <file://www.cma.army.mil>.

Ronica Brandenburg can be reached at rbrandenburg@ richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.