Depot readies for mustard campaign
By SAMANTHA BATES
The East Oregonian
About 40 people loaded up on a bus last Thursday at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility for a "golden ticket" tour of the plant that will soon begin its last campaign, destroying mustard ton containers.
Local government officials, Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program personnel and representatives from law enforcement, the education service district and local electric co-operatives - along with two reporters - took tours to learn of the journeys the ton containers would take from igloo to incineration.
The tour gave people a basic understanding of what will go on at the plant when it starts the next campaign, a good idea of many of the safety standards in place, and a specialty mustard campaign chocolate bar fit the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" golden ticket theme of the tour.
No chemical agent was on site - depot workers haven't yet transferred any from the igloos. There were mock one- ton containers filled with water or empty for demonstration purposes. Depot personnel also had been using the water containers for practice.
The mustard ton containers were all made between 1945 and 1946 as part of the Rocky Mountain arsenal. The depot stores them in the underground igloos on the property where they're cool and in a solid state. Before they head for the disposal facility, depot workers take warmers out to bring temperatures inside each ton container to 85 degrees.
When workrs move the contrainers to the facility, crews unpack them and put them in a device called the "glove box" where workers drain hydrogen from the containers. It's called a glove box because workers reach in through rubber gloves held in place along one side of the device.
Then the containers go to the draining station, where workers puncture and clean the inside of the receptacles with high pressure, high temperature washers. From there the containers head to the incinerators.
Since November of last year, mechanical workers have been changing the equipment at the processing facility so it can handle the large mustard containers instead of the smaller munitions. Other personnel have been training to be ready to take on their new duties. Before the facility begins the mustard campaign an outside group will come in to evaluate the depot's readiness. |
