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planned mainland destruction facilities. The Tooele facility in Utah contains the largest stocks of U.S. chemical weapons. It is the first and only operating continental disposal plant and has destroyed more than 35% of its original 13,616 tons of chemical weapons. If all goes well, Tooele is slated to close down at the end of 2003. Three other mainland disposal plants— also using the incineration system the Army calls baseline—are under constructhe U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are also tion. The Anniston, Ala., facility is about Lois R. Ember 89% built and is expected to begin and finbeing consulted. C&EN Washington By law, almost every part of the ish destroying weapons in 2002 and 2006, t the end of the year, the Army Johnston Atoll facility—especially the respectively. The facility being built in will reach a milestone in its cam- incineration equipment, piping, and Umatilla, Ore., is about 87% complete and i paign to destroy the nation's electrical wiring—has to be destroyed. has the same operation and finishing 31,496 tons of chemical weapons. No part of the facility can be recycled for schedule as Anniston. A disposal plant in Then, after destroying 2,031 tons of use at other incinerator sites now under Pine Bluff, Ark., is about 32% completed, and operation and finishing lag munitions and chemical ^ one year behind the Umatilla agents on Johnston Atoll in w - and Anniston sites. the Pacific Ocean, the Army will begin closing down its Tooele and the three sites disposal facility there. under construction are the only mainland sites at which The Johnston Atoll Chemiincineration technology is or cal Agent Disposal System will be used to dispose of the (JACADS)—the U.S.'s first chemical stocks. Originally, the fully integrated incinerator deArmy had planned eight such struction facility—opened in continental sites, but public op1990 and was slated for shutposition and congressional mandown four years later. In the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System facility dates forced it to consider alterface of daunting engineering will close and be dismantled. native disposal technologies for and safety issues and the age the other four sites. and condition of the muniAt two of these sites—Aberdeen, Md., tions, the Army's schedule was clearly construction or being planned on the overly optimistic. The facility didn't be- U.S. mainland. As Catherine S. Her- and Newport, Ind., where the chemical gin full operations until 1994 and just linger, spokeswoman for the Army's agents are stored in bulk containers— now has begun destroying the last of its program manager for chemical demili- neutralization instead of incineration is chemical stocks—13,302 land mines tarization, explains, "One furnace eats the disposal option of choice. According to Herlinger, pilot testing began at the filled with the nerve agent YX. the other furnace." However, Herlinger says, after dis- Aberdeen site in June 1999 and at the Over the past decade, the JACADS plant has destroyed blister agent, or mantling and decontaminating JACADS Newport site in April of this year. mustard gas, in artillery shells, mortars, the Army has expressed an interest in The remaining two sites—Pueblo, and in bulk containers. The nerve gas leaving the shell of the main building Colo., and Blue Grass, Ky.—are "on GB, or sarin, in artillery shells, in 500-lb standing for use by nesting birds. Robert hold," Herlinger says, awaiting the Arand 750-lb bombs, and in bulk contain- J. Shallenberger, deputy project leader my's decision on which alternative disers was also disposed of. And before for the Pacific National Wildlife Refuge, posal method to use to destroy the munithis final land mine disposal operation, says the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service tions stored at these sites. the JACADS facility had destroyed YX "would much prefer to see the building The Army is storing 780,078 artillery in artillery shells and in bulk containers. gone. We want everything removed that shells and mortars filled with mustard gas at Pueblo, and a disposal decision is When JACADS shuts down opera- we won't be using in the future." But the Army and the Air Force say expected by August 2001, according to tions and closure activities begin at the end of the year, nearly 7% of the nation's they have no funds to remove the build- Joseph J. Novad, a spokesman for the chemical weapons stockpile will have ing's concrete shell, and it wouldn't be Army's Assembled Chemical Weapons been destroyed. The Army has been ne- cost-effective to do so, Shallenberger Assessment program. Disposal choices gotiating with the Environmental Pro- tells C&EN. "It is likely that they will include the baseline incineration protection Agency's Region 9 office in San leave some shells standing that are bird cess in operation at JACADS and Francisco on how best to carry out clo- safe," he says. Bird safe means that Tooele, a modified baseline process that sure activities. Because the Air Force the building's doors and windows have would use only the baseline process metal parts furnace, neutralization folactually "owns" the atoll and because been removed. the atoll was named a National Wildlife As thefirst-of-its-kindfacility, JACADS lowed by biodégradation, and neutralRefuge in 1926, both the Air Force and has served as a prototype for the nation's ization followed by supercritical water
JOHNSTON ATOLL: END OF A BEGINNING Job nearly completed, U.S. 's first chemical weapons disposal facility set to shut down
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oxidation. A fifth choice—no action—is not likely, Novad says. There are 101,754 munitions stored at Blue Grass, including artillery shells filled with mustard gas, sarin-filled artil lery shells and rockets, and VX-filled artil lery shells and rockets. The Army hasn't begun the Environmental Impact State ment process, the last hurdle before a technical decision on how to destroy the munitions can be made. No disposal op tions have yet been made public, al though some of the same choices consid ered for Pueblo are being contemplated for Blue Grass. A final disposal decision at Blue Grass is expected at least six months after one is made for Pueblo, No vad says. According to James L. Bacon, pro gram manager for chemical demilitari zation, more than 86% of the U.S. chemi cal stockpile "is now under contract for destruction." The path to this point has not been easy for the Army, with many of the problems self-induced. In 1985, Congress instructed the Army to destroy the entire stockpile—a position the U.S. took unilaterally. Russia
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(then part of the Soviet Union), with an even larger stockpile of chemical weap ons, refused to join the U.S. In 1997, however, both the U.S. and Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that requires them to completely destroy their stockpiles by 2007. The U.S. expects to meet this dead line, having already destroyed more than one-fifth of its stored chemical weapons. "We are making very good progress," Herlinger says. Lack of funds and other problems have throttled back Russia's disposal plans. Rus sia has reported destroying about 1% of its 40,000-plus tons of chemical weapons and is unlikely to meet the 2007 deadline. Instead, it is expected to ask for a fiveyear extension, which the treaty allows. Russia is getting financial and techni cal help from the U.S. to destroy its chem ical stockpile. In 1991, Congress enacted and the President signed into law the Co operative Threat Reduction Act, more widely known as the Nunn-Lugar Act. The Chemical Weapons Destruction Sup port program created under this law per mits the U.S. to help Russia.
Most of U.S. aid under the destruc tion support program has been funneled into the design and construction of a pi lot chemical weapons disposal facility near Shchuch'ye in the Kurgan region of Russia near Kazakhstan. This pilot plant will test Russia's two-stage neu tralization process to destroy artillery shells filled with nerve agent. Nunn-Lugar funds have also helped Russia set up a monitoring lab called the Central Chemical Weapons Destruction Analytical Laboratory. This lab is locat ed at the State Scientific Research Insti tute for Organic Chemistry & Technolo gy in Moscow. Additionally, the U.S. has given Russia three mobile labs, called Real-Time Analytical Platforms, for onsite analysis capabilities at Russia's vari ous stockpile storage sites. The U.S. disposal program has not been without its mishaps. Over its life time, JACADS has experienced two small releases of the nerve agent GB, or sarin, to the atmosphere. These releases oc curred during maintenance operations, according to Marilyn Daughdrill, the chief spokeswoman for the chemical de-
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militarization program. And on May 8, a release of sarin through the main stack occurred at Tooele. According to Daughdrill, Tooele was in the process of destroying M56 rocket warheads containing sarin. The war heads were being punched to drain the nerve agent, which is burned in the liquid incinerator, and the metal parts were be ing chopped up for processing in the de activation furnace. But debris built up on the top feed gate to the deactivation fur nace and the assembly line was shut down for maintenance. During the mainte nance, which amounts to spraying the equip ment and room with water, the operator in the control room was having difficulty con trolling the pressure in the deactivation furnace. 'Without under standing that the furnace was cooling down, the operator increased the flow of air to try to restart the furnace's afterburn er," Daughdrill explains. The burst of air
FEATURING
says. Operations ceased un til investigations pinpointed the cause of the accident 'The entire event was precipitated by mainte nance activity, but was the result of equipment mal function and operator er ror," Daughdrill says. The Utah Department of Envi ronmental Quality and the Centers for Disease Con trol & Prevention, Atlanta, concurred with the cause of the accident. They also found "no threat to workers Land mines are the last of the in or around the facility or to munitions to be destroyed ο the local community," she Johnston Atoll. adds. Destruction of the chemical weapons at Tooele has been al through the afterburn er pulled contaminated lowed to continue. Complicated engineering, the age of air from the room in which the rocket war the stockpile, construction delays, and heads were being chopped up, through the the accidental releases have all extend entire system, and out the main stack, she ed the destruction schedule. As a result, explains. About 22.5 mg of sarin was re the cost of the program has risen steep leased to the atmosphere, but it was not de ly. Initially estimated to cost $1.7 billion, tectable 8 to 10 feet from the stack, she the estimate today is $15.3 billion.^
SPECIAL
KEYNOTE
SPEAKER
DIRECTOR NATIONAL HEART, L U N G , BLOOD INSTITUTE
2001
Annual C o n f e r e n c e a n d Exhibition J a n u a r y 2 7 - 3 1 , 2 Ο Ο 1
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