Anniston Begins Final VX Disposal Campaign

Disposal of the last VX nerve agent weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama began Saturday, the Anniston Star reported (see GSN, May 27).

It is expected to take about one year to incinerate thousands of M23 land mines filled with the lethal material, according to the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

The plant completed elimination of VX artillery shells on May 24; workers then began more than two months of preparations and training for the land-mine campaign.  They are set to “conduct a slow, steady ramp up” to full operations to avoid safety problems or violations of government rules.

Once the land mines are gone, the facility will undergo another changeover period in advance of incineration of hundreds of thousands of weapons that contain mustard blister agent, said disposal facility spokesman Mike Abrams.  Full destruction of Anniston’s chemical stockpile is set for mid-2012.

The plant to date has destroyed 317,671 weapons, more than 48 percent of the full stockpile at the depot.

“We still have a way to go,” Abrams said (Mike Faulk, Anniston Star, Aug. 3).

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