Story Published:
Aug 6, 2006 at 10:28 AM PDT
Story Updated:
Nov 14, 2009 at 2:36 PM PDT
HERMISTON, Ore. - If all goes well the last of more than
91,000 GB-filled M55 rockets will be destroyed Sunday at the
Umatilla Chemical Depot.
With all the rockets gone there is a 91 percent risk reduction
to the public, depot spokesman Bruce Henrickson told the East
Oregonian newspaper of Pendleton.
The rockets are being burned in a high-temperature oven built
especially to get rid of the chemical weapons at the depot, which
housed about 12 percent of the national stockpile when the
incineration program started in August 2004.
Henrickson said there is an atmosphere of "professional
restrained excitement" at the depot. "We're not done until we're
done, but it's a historic milestone for the depot and the
community," Henrickson said.
He said the destruction of the remaining rockets could be
postponed if anything went wrong, such as gate repairs on the
processing line that stopped the burning of the rockets and
warheads for several hours on Friday.
Henrickson said the destruction of the remaining chemical
weapons won't be completed for years.
He said the rockets carry a "triple whammy" because they are
self-propelled, contain nerve agent and contain explosives.
By contrast a bomb has two out of the three since isn't
self-propelled.
The rockets are about 6 feet long and can travel 6 miles. Each
contains 9-10 pounds of GB nerve agent and was designed to be fired
from a shoulder mounted rocket launcher.
Unexpected fires in parts of the incinerator have stopped
destruction briefly at times but Henrickson says there have been no
major accidents.
The United States is under treaty obligations to destroy the 7.4
million pounds of chemical agent in bombs, artillery shells,
rockets and other weapons at the depot by 2012.
Cost of the project has been estimated at $2.4 billion.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
UPDATE: What to do with Umatilla weapons depot land? A Land Reuse Authority mulls over the options.