Depot zaps millionth munition
Chemical weapons:
The facility edges closer to eliminating its stock of blister and nerve agents
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune
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DESERET CHEMICAL DEPOT - The nation's largest chemical
weapon storage facility destroyed its millionth munition on Wednesday, edging
closer to eliminating its aging stockpile of nerve and blister agents.
Deseret Chemical Depot, a U.S. Army facility in Tooele County that at one
time held nearly half the United States' original stockpile of chemical weapons,
plans to be rid of all munitions by 2008. That is four years before the nation
must eliminate its entire inventory under an international treaty meant to
eradicate such weapons.
U.S. Army Gen. Benjamin Griffin, who oversees the Army's Materiel Command,
heralded
the milestone,
calling it a historic occasion.
"Nothing is more critical to our military and to our nation than what you
are doing here," Griffin told hundreds of employees who gathered to celebrate
the accomplishment.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who signed a proclamation commemorating the occasion,
said Utah was participating in a role critical to national security.
"This is a milestone of which all of you should be proud," he said, noting
that the depot's mission is for the "safe storage, surveillance and destruction"
of the stockpile. "To that end, you have succeeded."
The million mark also moves Utah closer
to reducing
any and all risk for a leak of nerve agent outside the depot's boundaries,
an incident Army officials say hasn't happened since the facility started
destroying the weapons in 1996. One depot worker was exposed to a nerve agent,
but is now back to work without any apparent long-term damage.
Col. Raymond Van Pelt, the depot's commanding officer, said all nerve agents
will be destroyed at the facility by next year, with most destroyed by this
June, leaving only mustard blister agents to be incinerated after that.
That's a stark change from the original tally of nearly 1.2 million munitions,
or 13,617 tons of chemical weapons, held
at the site before the destruction program began. Weapons
have been stored at the depot since the early 1940s and some of the still
existing munitions date to World War II.
The depot, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, stores the aging weapons
in "igloo" bunkers. The weapons are destroyed in a complicated process that
includes heating the drained chemical agent to more than 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit,
even though Army officials say the agent is destroyed at 700 degrees.
Army officials dismissed concern Wednesday that with the reduction in Utah's
inventory of weapons, more chemical weapons could be shipped to the state
for incineration.
The
Defense Department has been studying a proposal to move weapons from Colorado
to Utah.
"As it stands now, there are no plans," said depot spokeswoman Alaine Southworth.
While officials trumpeted Wednesday's occasion, environmental activists cautioned
there is much work to be done.
"Well, congratulations," said Steve Erickson, director of the Salt Lake City-based
Citizens Education Project. "Let's get rid of the rest of it. The sooner we
can get rid of it, the better it will be for all of us."
Since it stores more of the nation's chemical weapons than the eight other
incinerator sites, Utah's 63-year-old
depot will be the only disposal facility to reach the
million-weapon milestone.
tburr@sltrib.com |
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