Pine Bluff to Begin Incineration With Sarin Rockets

Chemical weapons incineration at the U.S. Army’s Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas will begin with M55 rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 10).

“[Sarin] rockets pose the highest risk to the community,” said Stephen DePew, project general manager for disposal contractor Washington Group International.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal contains 12 percent of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile. Disposal is set to begin in the next few weeks.

Once the sarin-filled rockets are eliminated, the facility would process rockets carrying VX nerve agent and then VX land mines, the Commercial reported. 

Incineration is expected to finish with ton containers of mustard agent. Mustard agent makes up 80 percent of the arsenal’s stockpile, said Randy Long, site project manager for the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

Disposal efforts are expected to be finished no earlier than 2010, Long said. The final deadline for full U.S. disposal of its chemical arsenal under the Chemical Weapons Convention is 2012 (Amy Riggin, Pine Bluff Commercial, March 14).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.