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Changes Made to Reduce Pine Bluff Fires
Since chemical weapons disposal began at the end of March, officials at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas have made improvements to limit flare-ups and better share information publicly about the munitions destruction process, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 2). Arsenal spokeswoman Raini Wright said that sprays that cool rockets during the cutting process are used more often and stay on for longer periods of time to prevent fires. Residue is also cleaned more regularly in the area. Fires at the facility have occurred in a room with 2-feet-thick steel and concrete walls designed to contain a blaze. “They’re [the rockets] designed to ignite or explode; we definitely expect more of these,” Wright said of the fires. “These munitions are over 60 years old. They are aging. They were never designed to be stored that long.” Work at the facility is on track, with 30,000 sarin-filled M55 rockets destroyed along with 300,000 pounds of the nerve agent. In total, 13 igloos of weapons have been processed. Wright said work is expected to be done at the facility in 2010 and that it would take two years to close and dismantle the site (Katherine Marks, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Dec. 12). Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7, workers at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Oregon destroyed 1,938 sarin-filled rockets and 15,475 pounds of agent. To date, the facility has processed 44,857 weapons and 492,624 pounds of agent, or 3.6 percent of the total stockpile at Umatilla. Between Dec. 2 and Dec. 6, the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Alabama eliminated 2,191 sarin-filled 105 mm projectiles and 336 gallons of nerve agent. About 18 percent of the facility’s stockpile — 109,556 chemical weapons and 83,936 gallons of nerve agent — have been destroyed to date, according to the Anniston Star. Weapons processing was expected to resume last weekend following facility maintenance, the Star reported. The Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Indiana, between Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, destroyed 3,007 pounds of VX nerve agent. This brings the total amount processed to 71,906 pounds, or 3 percent of the total stockpile at the site. Work at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Utah is set to resume next year after the facility is reconfigured so that it can process mustard gas, according to the Star (Brian Lyman, Anniston Star, Dec. 11).
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