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Russia: Gorny Disposal Plant Resumes OperationA Russian chemical weapons disposal plant located in Gorny resumed operations Monday after being shut down for repairs (see GSN, June 27). The destruction of more than 1,100 metric tons of yperite and lewisite stored at the plant were halted in mid-May to conduct maintenance, according to ITAR-Tass (ITAR-Tass, Aug. 18 in FBIS-SOV, Aug. 18).
From August 19, 2003 issue.United States: Tooele Flaws Might Have Been Measurement Errors, Not Chemical ReleasesBy David McGlinchey “We had similar readings when we ran blank feeds,” said Greg Mahall, a spokesman at the Army’s Chemical Materials Agency. Last week, the Army stopped burning some chemical weapons after it was discovered that test burns of rockets containing VX nerve gas had not destroyed a sufficient amount of the chemical agent. Officials at the Tooele facility suspected the test reading may have been faulty and they ran the incinerator without any chemical weapons to see if testing equipment still showed that dangerous chemicals were being released. “You feed nothing [into the incinerator], knowing that you have a zero, to see if you receive a zero,” Mahall said. Mahall said officials are not yet certain if the problem lies only with the testing equipment, but he said the Army “believes that it is an analytical problem.”
From August 18, 2003 issue.United States: Anniston Incinerator Destroys More Than 30 Rockets in First WeekIn its first week of operation, the chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama destroyed more than 30 sarin-filled rockets, the Birmingham News reported Saturday (see GSN, Aug. 14). So far, the Anniston incinerator has destroyed 32 rockets out of more than 661,000 chemical weapons stored at the depot, according to the News. The incinerator last week was operational for three days, with maintenance problems resulting in the incinerator being shut down four times. “Once again, this is indicative that we are starting very, very slow — being very, very cautious,” U.S. Army spokesman Mike Abrams said (Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News, Aug. 16).
From August 14, 2003 issue.United States I: Tooele Chemical Weapons Incinerator Falls Short in TestBy David McGlinchey “The numbers that came out of the test burn were not within the parameters of the permit,” said Greg Mahall, a spokesman at the Army’s Chemical Materials Agency. The incinerator apparently did not burn as much of the chemical as regulations require, possibly releasing some into the atmosphere, but the shortfall was negligible, according to Mahall. Environmental regulations mandate that 99.9999 percent of the chemical be destroyed. Tests indicated that the incinerator last week destroyed 99.99985 percent of the gas. The problem might lie with the testing process and not the incinerator, Mahall added. “It is cause for concern from the point that it doesn’t meet the permit, it behooves one to stop and look at this,” he said. Army officials have suspended the incineration of fiberglass shipping and firing tubes for M-55 rockets, which contain the chemicals that might have been released. Army officials, Mahall said, are “being as protective as [they] can.” An environmental activist group said yesterday, however, that they might use the Tooele test as legal ammunition to stop chemical weapons incineration at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama (see related GSN story, today). The group sought a temporary restraining order against the Anniston incinerator last week, but it was rejected Friday. In arguing against the restraining order, Army lawyers cited the success of the Tooele incinerator. “Part of the argument they made was the performance and maturity and efficacy of the facility in Utah,” said Craig Williams, who heads the Chemical Weapons Working Group. Citing the troubled Umatilla incinerator in Oregon — which has failed several test burns — Williams said the overall outlook is not good for the Army’s incineration program. “Start connecting the dots, look at the big picture,” he said, the incinerators are “not all that they are advertised to be.” Tooele county officials said they do not believe the Army’s incineration program should be suspended because of last week’s test results at their local incinerator. The regulatory levels for burning chemical weapons “are set so conservatively … that even the failed level is no harm,” said Wade Mathews, a spokesman for Tooele County. Tooele County Commissioner Gene White said that last week’s test “doesn’t create an unsafe situation.” “It doesn’t completely concern me right at this particular point,” he added. The Tooele officials said that some of their worry is alleviated because their facility is not located in the midst of a residential area, unlike the Anniston plant, where about 30,000 residents live within nine miles of the incinerator.
From August 14, 2003 issue.United States II: Army Delays VX Destruction at Newport DepotThe U.S. Army announced yesterday that it has decided to delay the destruction of VX nerve agent housed at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, July 16). The Army had originally planned to begin disposing of the VX stored at the depot in October. The facility being built to neutralize the nerve agent, however, is not expected to be ready until at least January, Army project manager Jeff Brubaker said (Associated Press, Aug. 14).
From August 14, 2003 issue.United States III: Anniston Depot Has Shut Down Incinerator Twice This WeekThe chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama has been shut down twice this week because of maintenance problems after beginning operations Saturday, according to the Anniston Star (see GSN, Aug. 13). On Monday night, workers identified a problem with the motor on the cooling system for the facility’s pollution abatement system. Earlier that day, workers had also found a small leak of hydraulic fluid, according to the Star. A spokesman for the depot said both problems have been fixed. The two incidents were not emergencies and did not involve the release of chemical agents, depot spokesman Mike Abrams said. The incinerator was expected to resume operation yesterday, he said (Sara Clemence, Anniston Star, Aug. 13).
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