So why bring up the issue?
In 2008, the agency responsible for
the destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles in
Kentucky and Colorado noted there were problems with
some of the mustard projectiles in Tooele, Utah,
where they were to be incinerated.
The normally liquid mustard agent
inside the 60-year-old artillery shells had
solidified into a gel or tarlike consistency and
could not be drained. In addition, workers couldn't
remove the explosive element in each shell, known as
the "burster."
Had they been used in combat, the
155mm shells would have been fired from cannons or
howitzers. The burster causes the shell to explode
and disperse the mustard agent, which causes
chemical blistering of the skin.
But in the Utah mustard rounds,
the outer skin of the burster adhered to the inner
skin of the burster well, much like the over-baked
bottom of brownies sticks to an oven pan.
"Over time, the burster has
essentially become glued in place," said Jeff
Brubaker, site project manager for the pilot plant
at Blue Grass.
That's a problem because each
round must be taken apart before it is destroyed,
and that disassembly is fraught with danger, said
Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical
Weapons Working Group, the Berea-based organization
that monitors weapons destruction.
"You're going to have to send two
or three guys in to try to pull these bursters out
of there," Williams said. "Every time you do it,
there's a chance one of those things might explode.
That's not a reasonable risk."
The problems encountered in Utah
might foreshadow similar problems in Madison County.
That's because 65 percent of the mustard lots in the
Blue Grass stockpile are identical to those in Utah.
Blue Grass has 15,492 mustard
rounds, and 76 are listed as problem rounds that
have leaked and could not be disassembled. The
number of problem rounds is expected to grow
considerably, given the identical manufacturing lot
numbers seen in Blue Grass and Utah.
As an alternative, Army officials
suggest the use of "explosive destruction
technology," which would not require the disassembly
of munitions.
In addition, detonating certain
weapons arose because there are two potential gaps
in the program to destroy chemical weapons in the
United States. This is where international diplomacy
enters as a factor.
The United States is obligated to
dispose of its weapons stockpile by 2012 under the
terms of the International Chemical Weapons
Convention Treaty, but the government has
acknowledged that the deadline will not be met.
Under an estimated schedule,
incineration of weapons would end in January 2012 at
Utah and Alabama. Meanwhile, Pueblo, Colo., would
not start destroying its weapons until January 2015.
Another gap would happen from
December 2017, when the destruction of weapons would
finish at Pueblo, until October 2018, when the pilot
plant at Blue Grass would begin destruction of its
weapons.
The U.S. State Department and
National Security Council are concerned about these
lapses and how they will be received by other
countries that are parties to the treaty.
To bridge those gaps, the Army
recommended last year using the explosive
destruction technology to demonstrate the United
States is serious about the continuous disposal of
its weapons.
Furthermore, the Army says its
ability to meet public and congressional demands to
destroy all of the chemical weapons would be
enhanced by the selection and acquisition of
explosive-destruction technology to "augment" the
plants at Blue Grass and Pueblo.
"The recommendation has been made.
No final decision has been made," Brubaker said.
"And obviously, in order to do this, we would have
to comply with all" the state and federal permitting
requirements.
The Army is considering four types
of technology: three from private-sector vendors and
a fourth developed by the Army. The private-sector
technologies have been used to destroy mustard in
Belgium, Japan and Germany. Whatever method is
chosen, the equipment would be put near the pilot
plant under construction; a map published late last
year showed a potential site north of the pilot
plant.
"No decision on the exact siting
has been made yet," Brubaker said.
Last year, the National Research
Council issued a report that examined the
technologies and found them to be safe. It did not
field-test any of the technologies on its own, but
the council expressed confidence that they could
meet all U.S. regulatory requirements.
But there are other complicating
factors that make the discussion about exploding
weapons even thornier.
Initially only "problem" mustard
rounds that had leaked were proposed as candidates
for detonation.
Later, the Army said it
potentially save eight months of destruction time at
the pilot plant if all the mustard rounds could be
destroyed by detonation.
In addition, the non-contaminated
propellant parts of rockets at Blue Grass were
suggested as candidates to be blown up.
And finally, there has been
discussion of destroying some GB and VX nerve agents
with detonation technology.
That led the Kentucky Citizens'
Advisory Commission, the governor-appointed link
between the community and the Army, and the Chemical
Destruction Community Advisory Board, an independent
subcommittee of the CAC, to write a letter in
mid-December staking out positions on these ideas.
They did not oppose, in principle,
the use of detonation chambers to dispose of
"problem" or leaking mustard munitions at the depot.
They reserved their endorsement of any specific
technology until there is "adequate demonstration"
of the capability and environmental compliance of
any such approach.
They "unequivocally" opposed the
use of any such technology for the destruction of
nerve agents, but reserved a final recommendation on
nerve agent munitions found to be in a condition not
suitable for processing at the pilot plant, or for
which "unacceptable human risk would be expected,"
until more technical and environmental data is
presented.
The letter noted there was not
consensus among the voting members about these
recommendations. From his point of view, Williams
said, "It's not reasonable to trade someone's
well-being when there's an alternative that doesn't
put them at risk."
Determining the number of
"problem" munitions at Blue Grass will be the
subject of an assessment to begin later this year.
Sophisticated technology that can
peek into shells like an X-ray will assess the
condition of the mustard munitions in Madison
County. The goal is to complete that assessment next
year.
And a host of other questions
remains to be answered. Among them: How much will it
cost? How quickly could the technology be deployed?
How will secondary wastes be handled?
"It's important for people to
understand that we have time to perform due
diligence on all of these issues and answer all of
these questions," Williams said.
Richmond
Register February 26, 2010
Idea to blow up weapons worries many
Ronica
Shannon
A recent report about the
Army’s ideas of exploding some of the chemical
weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot and
at a storage site in Colorado may have been
“blown” out of proportion.
The proposed idea was written
about in an Associated Press story printed in
many publications, including the Richmond
Register.
“The story could have left
some misunderstanding as to what was being
proposed for the disposal of a specific portion
of the chemical weapons stored in Kentucky,”
said Craig Williams, director of the Berea-based
CWWG (Chemical Weapons Working Group).
The story appeared in the Feb.
20 edition of the Register titled “U.S. may
explode depot weapons,” and caused great concern
among citizens and former members of the U.S.
military, Williams said.
“I’ve gotten many calls from
people wanting further explanation about what
exploding chemical weapons really means, but the
most interesting response I’ve received is from
different Gulf War veterans from around the
country who read the story and were very
concerned because of their experience in the
first Gulf War where over 100,000 veterans were
exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agent
from the exploding of the Iraqi stockpile,”
Williams said. “They had GB, mustard and other
chemical weapons.”
The weapons stored at the Blue
Grass Army Depot contain mustard gas, along with
VX and GB nerve agent.
“These veterans misunderstood
and thought they were going to be blown up
inside the igloo, or worse, outside, rather than
inside an explosive containment vessel,” he
said. “They were very relieved to hear that this
wasn’t going to be an uncontrolled detonation.”
A limited number, if any, of
the 101,764 weapons stored at the Blue Grass
Army Depot will be disposed of using explosive
detonation technology, or EDT, he said. Only
“problem” mustard rounds are being noted as
needing EDT treatment.
Certain mustard rounds that
already have leaked and been overpacked,
referred to as “problem” rounds, would have to
be manually dissembled.
“You have to send in people
with ‘moon suits,’ crow bars, hammers and vice
grips to try to pry these things apart,”
Williams said. “It’s not responsible to put
those workers at that kind of risk.”
The primary reason for
considering EDT is because it has been
discovered that some mustard rounds are
virtually impossible to disassemble without
sending workers in to dismantle them manually,
he said.
However, Williams also wanted
to clarify: “No chemical weapons will be
exploded outside of vessel containment.”
There are four EDT’s being
considered for use in association to the
full-scale treatment facility: Explosive
Destruction System, Transportable Detonation
Chamber, Static Detonation Chamber and a
Vacuum-Integrated Chamber.
“Each has a somewhat different
design/process, but what they all have in common
is that they destroy the agent via explosion in
a vessel, which is steel, averaging four or more
inches thick in order to withstand the
explosion,” Williams said.
Local citizens advisory board
members Doug Hindman, Madison Judge/Executive
Kent Clark and Williams addressed a letter to
ACWA (Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative)
project manager Kevin Flamm dated Dec. 14.
“We realize that no decision
on the use of an EDT has yet been reached,” the
letter reads. “At the same time, the Kentucky
CAC/CDCAB (Citizens Advisory Commission/Chemical
Destruction Citizens Advisory Board) and the EDT
Working Group are quite concerned with the very
limited time frame being proposed for input on
the decision to deploy and EDT for periods
between end of operations at the CMA (Chemical
Materials Agency) sites and the beginning of
operations at the ACWA sites.”
An organization known as OPCW
(Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons) is putting pressure on the U.S. State
Department, which has admitted that they’re not
going to meet the extended 2012 deadline for 100
percent destruction of the US stockpile,
pertaining to both the Kentucky and Colorado
sites, Williams said.
This is what spawned the
reconsideration of detonation by the U.S. Army,
he said.
CAC/CDCAB members are
reserving their endorsement of any EDT for
application at (the Blue Grass Army Depot) until
there is adequate demonstration in the U.S. of
the technical capability and environmental
compliance of any such chemical weapon disposal
approach, the letter reads.
“The Kentucky CAC/CDCAB, along
with the state and others, are reviewing all the
available data and, since the incineration sites
can’t handle these ‘problem’ rounds either,
we’ll also have the benefit of data from years
of these technologies being used in Alabama and
Utah before we decide how to proceed,” Williams
said.
CAC and CDCAB members have met
with representatives from the National Research
Council, and are planning to host public
hearings to discuss the possibility of using
EDT.
Dates, locations and times for
these meetings have not been set as of yet.
Ronica Shannon can be reached
at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.
August 11,
2009 Richmond Register
More than a warning
Upgraded Tone Alert Radios
will soon be distributed
Ronica
Shannon
Madison County’s Emergency
Operation Center is taking safety a few miles
farther with the distribution of new Tone Alert
Radios (TARs) in the fall.
The 16,000 TARs already in
homes throughout the county are located within
the Immediate Response Zone (IRZ), which
historically has been considered any place
within 6.2 miles of the chemical weapons being
stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot.
“We’re expanding from 6.2 to 9
miles,” said Carl Richards, director of Madison
County’s Emergency Operations Center. “We knew
that 6.2 (miles) is a pretty small IRZ when we
looked at other states with depots that had
similar weapons.”
Increasing the span to nine
miles helps cover the majority of the county’s
population, he said.
Because of the IRZ expansion,
about 25,000 of the new TARs will be distributed
in mid-October, Richards said.
Those already living in the
IRZ eventually will have a chance to recycle
their current TAR that is about 12 years old.
Drop-off locations for the old TARs will be set
up throughout the community for convenience,
Richards said.
The new TARs offer more than
just emergency alert capabilities.
They will be black instead of
gray and feature a screen for emergency text
messages, as well as an AM/FM radio with
speakers and an alarm clock.
When the emergency tone sounds
on the current TARs, it advises that you turn to
a certain radio station for further details. The
new TARs already will have these radio stations
programmed into the device.
“Today, you would actually
have to go get a radio,” Richards said. “You
will not have to go get a radio with the new
ones.”
They also come equipped with a
battery that will last about one day in case of
a power outage.
The new radios will not only
feature a warning light for those hard of
hearing, but they also can read the emergency
text message as it scrolls across the screen, he
said.
Aside from those homes and
businesses in the 9-mile radius of the weapons
storage area at the depot, all residents within
the Berea city limits also will receive a new
TAR.
“What we’re trying to do is
get the majority of the population covered,” he
said.
Even though the TARs’ main
purpose is to alert residences of an accident at
the depot involving the chemical weapons, it
more often will be used as an emergency weather
warning system.
“It will alert you of tornado
or thunderstorm warnings via the National
Weather Service or from us,” Richards said.
“It’s more than just a weather
box,” he said. “It’s going to protect you from
more than just a depot event. That’s the beauty
of the program.”
The 25,000 new TARs, costing
about $5 million, were purchased with Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding
through the U.S. Army.
The TARs cost about $175 each,
but will be distributed for free to those in the
IRZ and all citizens within Berea’s city limits.
The delivery process should
begin in mid-October and be finished by the end
of the year, Richards said.
The TARs will be delivered
through the mail via FedEx or UPS, but the
resident must provide their signature upon
delivery.
There will be three delivery
attempts, and at least one of those attempts
must be made on a Saturday, Richards said.
“It gives us a better chance
of getting people at home,” he said. “We won’t
leave it on their doorstep.”
For those who do not want a
TAR, the answer is simple.
“We won’t give you one if you
don’t want it,” Richards said.
For more information, call the
Madison County EOC at 624-4787.
Ronica Shannon can be reached
at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.
