Atlanta, Feb 06: The US Army temporarily shut down a controversial chemical weapons incinerator in Alabama after an alarm detected what it said were minute traces of a chemical agent in an observation corridor.

Officials did not identify the substance but stressed there had been no threat to the 1 billion dollars facility, which destroys deadly nerve agents such as Sarin, or the surrounding community.
''No one at the site was injured,'' said Timothy Garrett, the site's project manager. ''I also want to state emphatically that the community and the environment was not and is not endangered following today's agent alarm.''
The incinerator is in the North-Eastern Alabama town of Anniston and less than 160 km from the heavily populated cities of Atlanta and Birmingham. About 110,000 people live within 50 km.
Garrett added that some personnel had donned protective masks as a precaution after the alarm went off.
The army, complying with an international treaty, began burning chemical weapons, including M-55 rockets containing Sarin, at the facility last year.
The decision to burn weapons at the Anniston depot triggered protests from environmentalists and local residents. Critics said the plan posed a significant hazard and harm to residents and property. There were about 2,000 tonnes of rockets, artillery shells and land mines containing Sarin, VX and other nerve agents at the depot before burning started on August 09, 2003.
The stockpile accounted for about six per cent of the US chemical weapons that must be destroyed by 2007 under an international treaty.
The incinerator has destroyed nearly 18,000 rockets and 20,000 gallons (75,700 litres) of liquid GB, also known as Sarin, since operations began last year, the army said. Bureau Report