Pine Bluff Arsenal Prepares to Resume CW Disposal

Weapons incineration at the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Arkansas is expected to resume within two weeks following months of repairs, the Pine Bluff Commercial reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 13).

Workers on Monday began moving rockets from storage to the disposal facility. Processing should begin “in the next couple of weeks,” said Pine Bluff Arsenal spokeswoman Carole Newton.

Work stopped in January to allow for replacement of furnace pipes in the site’s pollution abatement systems.

The disposal facility to date has processed 4.6 percent of the chemical agents stored at Pine Bluff, which contains the second-largest U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, the Commercial reported (Larry Ault, Pine Bluff Commercial, May 9).

Meanwhile, 72 bolts on a furnace afterburner broke as it was being heated Monday at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Alabama.

The afterburner was not exposed to chemical agent, and there were no injuries or danger to the community, the Army Chemical Materials Agency said in a release.

The accident is expected to slow maintenance work at the facility, which currently is not conducting weapons disposal (see GSN, March 3). The site is preparing for processing of M55 rockets filled with VX nerve agent. Disposal was scheduled to resume in July, and it was not immediately known if the accident would change that schedule, the release states.

“We will determine what happened and then we will determine what needs to be done to fix the equipment,” government site project manager Timothy Garrett said in the release.

The broken afterburner is a component of the deactivation furnace, which is used to destroy M55 rockets after they have been sliced into eight pieces. Explosive components from other munitions are also incinerated in the furnace.

The afterburner did not explode or fall. A number of recently added bricks did come loose and fall, according to the press release (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, May 9).

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