By Nathan Isaacs, Herald Oregon bureau
HERMISTON -- The Umatilla Chemical
Depot in Oregon had its fourth fire in as many months Friday night, temporarily
suspending operations to destroy M55 rockets filled with GB sarin nerve agent.
Previous fires were April 7
and 23 and May 18 at the depot, which is 35 miles south of the Tri-Cities.
The fires each started in the M55 GB sarin rockets' motor section as a shearing
machine was chopping up the rockets. The depot resumed destroying
rockets at 5 p.m. Saturday after following a new protocol to review the incident.
Depot officials also consulted with Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality
before restarting. No injuries were reported Friday
and the fire was quickly extinguished. No chemical agents escaped into the
atmosphere, officials reported.
The cutting machine was making the fifth of seven cuts when the fire started as the blade cut through the rocket motor section.
The depot has two production lines to destroy the rockets. The fire happened on the Bravo line, Barclay said. He said operations resumed on the Alpha line while some repairs were finished on the Bravo line.
The state put a hold on the rocket destruction for about three weeks following the last fire in May. Work resumed June 9.
Barclay said a result of the previous fires was a policy that the depot would investigate the fire's cause, assess whether there were any abnormalities from the previous fires and, if not, resume operations after first checking with the state.
The depot also instituted some added measures to minimize any damage a fire may cause.
Initial tests of nine rocket motors sent to an Army lab in New Jersey suggest nitroglycerin in the rocket's propellant had separated and pooled on the propellant grains. That means that while the rockets are safe to handle and move, a fire could result if the cutting blade hit such a pool of nitroglycerin as it sliced through the rocket. Final test results are expected in the coming weeks.
Destruction of other chemical components continues at the depot. The Army announced recently that destruction of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons was on track for completion within seven years.
Already more than a quarter of the M55 rockets stored at the Oregon depot have been destroyed since that work started in September 2004.
Barclay said the system will allow a maximum of 38 rockets per hour to be destroyed and operations run seven days a week and almost 24 hours a day. However, workers were destroying 18 rockets per hour when the fire happened.
These have not been the only fires at the depot or at the nation's other incinerators.
The depot also had another fire in mid-November but investigators determined it was caused by a failure in the system that cools the shearing machine blades.
An incinerator at Anniston, Ala., had a fire Nov. 13, 2003, that was similar to the recent rocket motor fires. The incinerator at Pine Bluffs Arsenal in Arkansas also had a rocket fire May 11.