HERMISTON -- People who live in the shadow of the Umatilla Chemical Depot have grown relatively comfortable with the tons of chemical weapons stored in their midst and the process of destroying them, officials say.

However, one of the more common questions still asked is how munitions get moved from the storage bunkers to the nearby incinerator. The plant is 35 miles south of the Tri-Cities.

"The uncertainty and the questions have been that time in between," said Mary Binder, depot spokeswoman.

She said people worry about the rockets being exposed to outside air, how fast the trucks carrying munitions travel and how officials know the transfer process is safe.

Currently, the depot is moving and destroying M55 rockets containing GB sarin nerve agent. Each pallet holds 15 rockets, each stored in fiberglass tubes.

When munitions are moved, workers don't wear gas masks, and there are a few minutes where pallets of rockets are exposed to the outside air. But officials say several steps are taken before the igloo is opened and during the move to ensure safety.

Laura Harriman of Umatilla and Bart Marsters of Irrigon, two toxic material handlers at the depot who help move the munitions pallets, said they were comfortable with the process.

Marsters said he has been a toxic material handler for five years but has been working with the federal depot program 22 years. He said he didn't have any worries about taking the job when he applied.

"You rely on the training and people that were here before you and the safety equipment," he said.

Harriman expressed a similar feeling. Before the depot, she worked with explosives at a silver mine near Boise, Idaho.

Think safety, she said.

Before workers open the doors to a storage igloo, monitors check the inside air to make sure it's free of nerve agent vapors. Then workers go in dressed in white coveralls, rubber boots, rubber gloves and masks, Marsters said.

They start at the back of the igloo with another portable monitor and check the munitions for leaks while other monitors test the air, he said.

Once the inspection is finished, the workers set up a zone with several portable monitors that allow them to work in the igloo without wearing gas masks, he said.

Harriman said the monitors give workers a safe area about 12 feet in diameter and they start moving munition pallets as soon as the monitored perimeter has been set up.

"You're always monitored while in that igloo," Marsters said. He said he has never had a monitor go off while in a storage bunker.

Generally, two pallets are driven from storage to the incineration facility at a time, Harriman said.

From inside the igloo, the pallets are moved one at a time by an electric forklift to the igloo door, she said. From the door, a second diesel forklift picks up each pallet and moves it to a shipping container.

Marsters estimated the pallets are outside fewer than 10 minutes and closely monitored the entire time. Once the pallets are inside, the shipping container is sealed shut and driven to the incineration plant at less than 10 mph, Harriman said.

Toxic material handlers and other workers at the depot are trained with simulation munitions before ever stating to move the real thing.

Neither Marsters nor Harriman felt nervous about handling the rockets. They said there was even a friendly competition over which shift would get to move the first pallets.

But Harriman said she was a little in awe of the process.

"You have to be able to trust the equipment and monitors and people you work with," she said.

Marsters said he felt the same way. "It's a lot like a family, everyone has a job to do and they know how to do the job," he said.