|
|
|
Workers at the Tooele Chemical
Agent Disposal facility have destroyed the last of the 632 VX agent-filled
bulk containers stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Stockton.
The milestone marked the successful destruction of bulk containers and demonstrates
continuing progress in the mission to eliminate the chemical weapons stockpile,
said depot spokesman Chuck Sprague on Monday.
Twelve bulk containers filled with VX hydrolysate, a by-product of chemical
neutralization testing, await processing. Under terms of the international
Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty, the depot cannot declare the VX Bulk
Container Campaign completed until the hydrolysate containers are processed.
Destruction operations now are targeting VX agent-filled 155-millimeter projectiles,
with plans to destroy remaining VX spray tanks, land mines and the hydrolysate
containers.
Meantime, technicians detected mustard agent vapor in a storage igloo Sunday
in the chemical stockpile area of the depot. Sprague said the storage igloo
contains mustard-filled containers. The leak was confined within the igloo.
-- Dawn House