|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Fire at Pine Bluff Stops Chemical Weapons Processing
Chemical weapons elimination at the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas was stopped Saturday morning following a fire in an explosives containment room, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported (see GSN, Nov. 12). Pieces of a sheared rocket are believed to have ignited. A small flame emerged from the tipping gate of the deactivation furnace, said Raini Wright, a spokeswoman for the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Wright said in a statement that the fire lasted for several minutes before being extinguished by the sprinkler system. She added that no rockets were being destroyed during the fire and that workers, the public and the environment were not in danger. “The cause of the event appears to be the ignition of residue material near the hopper area,” facility project manager Mark Greer said in a written statement. “The hopper is the container that holds sheared rocket pieces before they are released into the deactivation furnace.” “Operations will resume after all systems have been checked and it is determined that it is safe to proceed,” he added. Officials did not give a date for work at the facility to resume (Wilson Brown, Pine Bluff Commercial, Nov. 12). Meanwhile, destruction of VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana stopped Thursday so that workers can replace gaskets on two agent neutralization reactors, the Associated Press reported. Weapons processing will be halted for at least two weeks, the Army said. An investigation determined that the Oct. 29 spill of nearly 500 gallons of wastewater was caused either by gasket failure or improper alignment of a gasket, the Army said. Spokeswoman Terry Arthur said that 88 gaskets need to be replaced. “To assure ongoing system safety, we are taking this opportunity to change out all gaskets in the reactor system,” said Rick Rife, project manager for site contractor Parsons Technology Inc., said in a statement. Work at the site has been stopped since the spill occurred. Replacing the gaskets means work will be stopped for at least a month, according to AP (Associated Press, Indianapolis Star, Nov. 10).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
