Chem Demil Update

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announced that it has "completed its mission to destroy all non-stockpile materiel declared" as of 1997, when the United States formally ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The term "non-stockpile materiel" refers to those chemical warfare agents and associated munitions that were discovered outside of the Army's nine original stockpile sites, mostly found in formerly utilized defense sites and places like the American University. For those items that could be safely transported, the non-stockpile material was moved to Pine Bluff Arsenal for eventual destruction.

CMA’s U.S. Army Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project (NSCMP) began operations at the Pine Bluff Explosive Destruction System (PBEDS), located at Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA), Ark., in June 2006 to destroy items, such as 4.2-inch mortars and German Traktor rockets captured during World War II. PBEDS completed destruction operations on April 14.

"The Army's Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project is the Nation's best equipped organization to provide safe, successful destruction of such a diverse inventory of recovered chemical munitions," said Carmen Spencer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Elimination of Chemical Weapons. "This accomplishment exemplifies the excellent work we have come to expect from this dedicated group."

Munitions were assessed at PBA before treatment in NSCMP’s Explosive Destruction System (EDS), a neutralization technology that provides safe, environmentally responsible treatment of RCWM. Developed as an alternative to open detonation, the transportable EDS provides on-site treatment and neutralization of RCWM and prevents the release of vapor, blast and munition fragments from the process. Operators confirm complete neutralization of the chemical agent by sampling liquid and air prior to opening the EDS.

This is a worthy achievement, if not only because the Army successfully destroyed more than 1200 items without any significant safety incidents. This process described in the article is also how the Army has proposed to initiate some disposal work at Pueblo, a proposal that has met with some resistance by local citizens who don't want to see the Army finish its work too quickly. And while I laud the CMA accomplishment, let me note the careful wording in this announcement. Although CMA has completed its disposal of all declared non-stockpile munitions, there is still the possibility that there are undiscovered chemical munitions out there.

I remember an old report that suggested there were literally hundreds of suspect sites in more than 30 states, and it was only because of a lack of resources that the Army couldn't confirm whether or not the sites did have any chemical materials there. So the task continues, although the Army has met an important milestone that it should celebrate. It reinforces the important point that destroying chemical munitions is not only possible with current technology, it can be done safely and to both domestic and international safety and accountability standards.

Comments

[DE Teodoru]

It's rather funny...all a matter of perspective. If you're in healthcare, it's not the bio-agents of Arabs that bother you-- you eat falafel to your heart's content-- but the processing of meats and grains done by corporate "food" America. Obesity and diabetes as well as plastics are killing us….and cancers we never met before are stimulate by what leaches out of our plastic containers. Never before has the nucleus of every cell in our bodies been so much at risk as now-- the definition of carcinogenic death-- for the sake of corporate profit. A Jihadi is a guy I can see from my video game seat in Nevada with the US Air Force and blow away with a SideWinder missile remote control from my RCAD plane. But a corporation is an artificial individual behind which hides the real fat little Wizard of Oz (like the fat little head honcho of Goldman&Sacks), collecting his profits with which he buys chicks and things.

Plllleeeeaaaasssseee, Senator, remember that Wall Street did us in much deeper than binLaden would have ever dared dream to do with shahids.

[NVH]

Is one of those 30 sites the one with all the preserved zombies J?

And what's with the post above this one ?!