LOCAL NEWS

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Last Nerve Agent Munitions Being Incinerated

By Mike Faulk

Star Staff Writer

08-03-08

Aug. 3--The Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility began incinerating the last of its nerve agent munitions Saturday, spokesman Mike Abrams said.

Workers began processing the first of several thousand M23 VX nerve agent-filled land mines. The startup followed nine weeks of planned maintenance work, Abrams said.

The land mine disposal campaign should take about a year to complete, according to an ANCDF press release. When it is completed, the blister agent mustard stored at the Anniston Army Depot will remain to be destroyed.

The incinerator has been in a maintenance outage since May 24 while workers converted the plant from destroying VX-filled projectiles to destroying the land mines. The press release said installation of new robotic mine-processing equipment was necessary, and employees were trained in the procedure of properly destroying the VX land mines.

"We have safely and successfully completed our sixth munition change over," site project manager Timothy K. Garrett said in the press release. "The plant and personnel are ready to safely and successfully dispose of the VX land mines."

The press release said the department will "conduct a slow, steady ramp up" to ensure safety and compliance with government regulations.

VX, originally developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1950s, is the most potent man-made chemical warfare agent on the planet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Abrams said once the land mines are gone, the disposal facility again will shut down the incinerator to prepare it for destruction of the last of its chemical agent stock: the blister agent mustard.

The depot expects to have disposed of its entire chemical weapons stock by mid-2012, Abrams said. Hundreds of thousands of weapons remain to be destroyed, he said.

"We still have a way to go," he said.

So far, the incinerator has eliminated more than 48 percent of the munitions and more than 46 percent of all agents stored at the Anniston Army Depot, Abrams said. The incinerator has destroyed 317,671 chemical weapons so far, he said.

Mike Faulk is a staff writer for The Anniston Star. He is a 2008 graduate of the University of Alabama.