South Korean Response:  Seoul Increases Security at World University Games

South Korea has increased security at the World University Games, being held in the city of Daegu, amid concerns that the event may be targeted for a possible chemical weapons attack, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 21, 2002).

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has received information that the games may be targeted by Islamic militant groups, according to AP.  In response, police have increased surveillance around event venues and have increased transportation checks around team accommodations, the South Korean Environment Ministry said in a press release.  A ministry official said the measures are only precautionary, and there have been no signs of terrorist activity (Associated Press/News24.com, Aug. 21).

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Russia:  Gorny Disposal Plant Resumes Operation

A 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).   

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United States:  Tooele Flaws Might Have Been Measurement Errors, Not Chemical Releases

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Army officials believe that a recent test failure at the Tooele chemical weapons incinerator in Utah may in fact have been an analytical problem, a spokesman said today (see GSN, Aug. 14).

“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.”

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United States:  Anniston Incinerator Destroys More Than 30 Rockets in First Week

In 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).

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