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VX Destruction Resumes at Newport Chemical Depot
Workers at the U.S. Army’s Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Indiana resumed destroying VX nerve agent late last month, the Terre Haute Tribune-Star reported (see GSN, Aug. 26). Facility spokeswoman Terry Arthur said a 180-gallon container was processed Aug. 26 by mixing the nerve agent with 800 gallons of water and sodium hydroxide. The liquid was to be tested for flammability and to confirm that the nerve agent was destroyed. “Everything did go smoothly on restart,” Arthur said (Tribune-Star, Aug. 30). Jeff Brubaker, Army project manager at Newport, said last week the facility made changes to VX destruction that lower the flammability of waste product created in the neutralization process, the Associated Press reported. Changes increased the flashpoint of the waste product to 141 degrees, with some batches having flashpoints of more than 200 degrees, Brubaker said. “Our analysis here shows that we were capable and successful in processing nonflammable hydrolysate,” Brubaker said (Associated Press I/WKTY, Sept. 2). Plans for disposal of the waste is drawing opposition from activists in four states, according to the Associated Press. Environmental and public advocacy groups in Indiana, New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky have asked the Army to abandon a plan to move the waste product from the Newport facility to New Jersey for final disposal. In a letter to Assistant Army Secretary Claude Bolton, the groups ask for the Army to follow its original plan and destroy the waste at Newport, AP reported. “It is time for the Army to quit fooling around and seriously assess its options for treatment of the hydrolysate in an open, transparent manner,” the groups said in the letter. An Army spokeswoman said Bolton was unavailable to comment on the letter (Associated Press II/WKTY, Sept. 1).
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