US Army scrapping four chemical weapons incinerators

Anniston (US): The Defense Department spent USD 10.2 billion over three decades burning tons of deadly nerve gas and other chemical weapons stored in four US states, some of the agents so deadly even a few drops can kill. Now, with all those chemicals up in smoke and communities freed of a threat, the Army is in the middle of another, USD 1.3 billion project, Demolishing the incinerators that destroyed the toxic materials. In Alabama, Oregon, Utah and Arkansas, crews are either tearing apart multibillion-dollar incinerators or working to draw the curtain on a drama that began in the Cold War, when the United States and the former Soviet Union stockpiled millions of pounds of chemical weapons. Construction work continues at two other sites where technology other than incineration will be used to neutralize agents chemically, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the incinerator complex at the Anniston Army Depot, where sarin, VX nerve gas and mustard gas were stored about 89 kilometers east of Birmingham, the military this week said it`s about one-third of the way into a USD 310 million program to level a gigantic furnace that cost USD 2.4 billion to build and operate. Tim Garrett, the government site project manager, said officials considered doing something else with the incinerator, but the facility was too specialized to convert for another use. Also, the law originally allowing chemical incineration required demolition once the work was done. So teams are using large machines to knock holes in thick concrete walls and rip steel beams off the building`s skeleton, which was previously decontaminated to guard against any lingering nerve agents or mustard gas. Metal pieces are being recycled, and the rest will be hauled to an ordinary landfill. "It`s the end of an era," said Garrett, a civilian. The military said the incineration program cost USD 11.5 billion in all, with the cost of tearing down the four facilities built in from the start. A USD 2.8 billion incinerator is being demolished in Umatilla, Oregon, the Pentagon said, and work will begin soon to tear down a USD 3.7 billion incinerator at Tooele, Utah. Workers already have finished demolishing the USD 2.2 billion Pine Bluff Chemical Demilitarization Facility in Arkansas, the military said.