VX destruction countdown begins

By Patricia L. Pastore/Tribune-Star

June 18, 2004

The Army's countdown for destruction of the deadly nerve agent VX has begun.

The Newport Chemical Agent Destruction Facility has nearly completed the first of two final phases of preparation for nerve agent VX destruction. The destruction is scheduled to begin in September.

"Currently we are in the process of the 'demonstration of safe operations,'" Jeff Brubaker, Army site project manager, said Thursday. He said this program involves the identification of tasks and systems that must be validated before starting the destruction of chemical agent. All the validation requirements are grouped into a series of demonstrations, which will be evaluated.

Army contractor Parsons Technologies Inc. is operating the VX destruction facility on-site at the Newport Chemical Depot.

"Parsons employees have completed over 110,000 hours of training at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility," said Ginger Corado of Parsons outreach/public affairs. She said a focus of the training efforts is on the Emergency Response System that began with basic education and the development of response teams through the facility's Drill and Exercise Program.

The demonstration of safe operations, also known as DSO, began May 15, Corado said. She said this practice run allows each of four shifts to demonstrate many times it is ready .

"The evaluation criteria will determine if the task was performed and if it was performed correctly according to procedure," Corado said. "Effective communication and documentation is very important and safety must always be the first consideration."

Each shift's demonstrations will be evaluated by members of the DSO team, members of the Commissioning Review Board and field office personnel.

"Feedback is provided directly to the shift personnel in order to improve their performance," Corado said. "The object of the first several weeks of the DSO is to identify problems, deficiencies or areas for improvement. As the weeks progress and the identified issues are resolved, performance is expected to improve to the point where all evaluation criteria are met for every shift on a consistent basis."

DSO practice activity leads to the integrated plant run, or IPR, which is a five-day evaluation test for plant readiness, Brubaker said.

All federal and state stakeholders, such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Chemical Materials Agency and various Army agencies have been invited to observe the five days of demonstrations scheduled during the integrated plant run, he said. "The IPR is a five-day activity focused on 24/7 operation," Brubaker said Thursday. "More than 30 individual demonstrations are scheduled for evaluation."

Corado said the demonstrations will try to answer questions as simple as, "Is the shift turnover from one shift to the next being handled effectively?" to "Can the neutralization system effectively destroy ton containers of simulated VX for five consecutive days?"

During the time period when the plant is processing, contingencies will be added, Corado said. She said these contingencies will include complications such as the loss of power, loss of major equipment or a ton container with liquid on its exterior.

"The stakeholders will be evaluating not only the ability of the plant and personnel to do their jobs safely and effectively, but the ability of the Newport Chemical Agency Destruction Facility evaluators to identify any issues that may arise." Corado said. "This process ensures that not only will conditions be safe for destruction of agent but an effective evaluation program will be in place to continuously improve performance."

"The Newport project is demonstrating safe operations and certifying our trained operator staff," said John Stewart, Parsons project manager. "The demonstration is going very well."

When the DSO phase is completed, the Army and Parsons will begin the final step in demonstrating they are ready to destroy the actual deadly VX nerve agent.

"Within a short time we will be prepared to execute an integrated plant run, where we intend to demonstrate both system and personnel performance to a large number of project stakeholders," Brubaker said. "Successful demonstration during the integrated plant run will lead to starting VX destruction."

The integrated plant run could start as early as July 12, Brubaker said Thursday. After corrections and validations, Parsons will issue a certification letter to the Army stating the facility is ready for agent destruction.

Before VX neutralization is initiated, the Army must formally notify Congress it is ready to begin on a specific date. The Army also must notify the oversight organization under the International Chemical Weapons Convention that more than 150 nations signed agreeing to destroy all chemical weapon stockpiles.

"We have already submitted documentation to the Pentagon to start the congregational notification and we have already started the notification through the international organization," Brubaker said. "We are looking at a September time frame."

Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or pat.pastore@tribstar.com