Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003

Army to begin destroying gelled rockets at Anniston incinerator

The Associated Press

The Army has completed performance tests at its chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston and is preparing to begin destroying gelled rockets.

An Army news release Tuesday said the tests, required for federal and state environmental regulators, were completed successfully Sunday.

"The furnace systems and our work force performed flawlessly," said Westinghouse Anniston Plant Manager Ken Ankrom, the director for the trial burns. "Completing the tests Sunday puts us ahead of where we expected to be at this phase of the project."

During the days of testing this month, the furnace processed about 1,015 pounds of agent an hour, incinerator officials said.

Preparations are now under way to begin processing gelled rockets, those in which the chemical agent has gelled and cannot be drained in liquid form. Incinerator officials said the plan is to process two rockets on the first day and progress up to 14 gelled rockets an hour, with an agent trial burn planned for the beginning of February.

"I am very impressed with the team's safe operations within the plant to date," said project manager Tim Garrett. "This same safety culture will be carried forward as we work with gelled rockets."

Since the Army began burning its Anniston stockpile of Cold War-era chemical munitions in August, it has destroyed more than 14,700 M-55 rockets filled with deadly GB nerve agent, or sarin, and more than 15,000 gallons of the agent collected from the rockets.

Nearly 700,000 munitions weighing 2,254 tons have been stored at the Anniston Army Depot for more than 40 years, with the incineration project expected to take at least several years.