| TribStar.com |
Published: March 15, 2006 10:51 pm
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Army: Failed plug in chemical reactor caused leak By Patricia L. PastoreThe Tribune-Star A plug that dislodged during a planned maintenance operation caused the leak of about 300 gallons of VX hydrolysate Tuesday at the Newport Chemical Depot. No one was injured in the fourth VX hydrolysate spill since VX destruction started May 5. The hydrolysate that leaked onto the floor had previously been cleared of all detectable nerve agent, said Lt. Col. Scott Kimmell, Newport Chemical Depot commander. He said the liquid “flowed to a sump in the sealed concrete floor of the reactor bay area.” Hydrolysate is the caustic liquid byproduct of the neutralization, or destruction, of VX nerve agent, which is under way in Newport’s Chemical Destruction Facility. The leak happened when two employees were performing maintenance on a mixer/reactor filled with hydrolysate, Kimmell said. While “attempting to tighten a plug at the bottom of the reactor, the plug became dislodged and about 300 gallons of the liquid leaked onto the sealed concrete floor and into a sump designed to contain liquid,” he said. Spills in June and July were blamed on defective valves, the Army has said. The largest spill occurred in October, when 500 gallons leaked because of unsound gaskets, the Army has said. Problems such as these are not surprises and time was figured into the schedule to allow for the delays caused by such leaks, Arthur said. She said this is a pilot program using technology and equipment never before used because VX has never before been destroyed. VX is a chemical weapon that has been stored at Newport since the 1960s. One drop the size of a BB can kill a human, the Army has said. The nerve agent is being destroyed in a process in which the VX is mixed with sodium hydroxide and water in reactors in a contained area of the facility. The leak caused no danger to workers outside the reactor bay, to the public or to the environment, the commander said. Parsons, the company the Army contracted to destroy the 1,269 tons of VX stockpiled at Newport, will “continue an investigation to determine the root cause of the incident,” a news release said. Parsons began VX neutralization May 5. About 10 percent of the Newport stockpile has been destroyed, said Terry Arthur, Army spokeswoman. Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or pat.pastore@tribstar.com. Spills at the Newport Chemical Depot: Since an Army contractor began destroying the Newport Chemical Depot’s VX nerve agent in May 2005, there have been four spills at the complex: — March 14, 2006: About 300 gallons of a caustic wastewater called hydrolysate produced by VX’s chemical neutralization spilled from a reactor after workers dislodged a plug. Neutralization was halted and will not resume until the problem is fixed. — October 29, 2005: About 490 gallons of hydrolysate spilled from a chemical reactor after degraded gaskets failed. Dozens of gaskets in both reactors were replaced with superior Teflon/stainless steel gaskets. Neutralization in both reactors resumed by early December. — July 13, 2005: About five gallons of hydrolysate spilled in a sealed area when control room operators were remotely transferring wastewater to test a flow meter. At the time of this spill, neutralization had not yet resumed in the wake of the June spill. — June 10, 2005: About 30 gallons of a mixture of VX, sodium hydroxide and water spilled as VX was being fed into a reactor. Neutralization resumed in late August after diaphragm material in degraded valves was replaced with ball-bearing systems. — Associated Press |