Work winds down at Ala. weapons incinerator - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Work winds down at Ala. weapons incinerator

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Army’s $1 billion chemical weapons incinerator in Alabama started its final phase of work by taking apart dozens of old mortars filled with mustard agent, officials said Friday.

Explosive charges were removed from more than 60 of the shells, which will be drained later, said incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams.

Workers will burn the liquid chemical once they have stored enough of it in tanks to operate an incinerator used to destroy liquids, he said, and they will incinerate the metal parts in a separate burner.

“By design, it will be a couple of days before all of the systems ... are engaged and we see steady throughput,” he said.

The last of thousands of weapons filled with the dangerous chemical should be emptied, chopped up and burned by early 2012, when workers will then begin decontaminating and decommissioning the complex about 50 miles east of Birmingham.

The incinerator previously destroyed all the nerve weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot, leaving only the mustard-filled weapons.

First used as a weapon in World War I, mustard causes painful blisters and burns on contact with the skin but is rarely fatal. It’s not nearly as dangerous as two deadly nerve agents that were handled at the incinerator, VX and sarin.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that fewer than 5 percent of people who were exposed to mustard agent during World War I died if they got medical care.

The last of more than 360,000 weapons filled with nerve agents and stored in dirt-covered bunkers at the Anniston depot were destroyed in December. Work to destroy the mustard-filled weapons began late Thursday.

“Initial operations will be slow and deliberate as crews from all four shifts learn the nuances of processing mustard munitions,” said incinerator site manager Tim Garrett.

Tons of chemical weapons have been stored at the Anniston installation for decades. Incineration work began in 2003 as part of the Army’s $34 billion program to destroy all its chemical weapons dating from the Cold War.

Anniston is home to the nation’s only chemical weapons destruction plant located near a populated area, and the military provided safety gear to many of the 35,000 people who live within nine miles of the incinerator before work began. No major accidents have occurred.

Nationally, the Army said about 63 percent of the nation’s stockpile of 31,500 tons of chemical weapons have been destroyed at seven sites in the last 19 years under an international treaty.