Pine Bluff Arsenal
I had a student about 8 years ago, she was a scientist, and worked at the Pine Bluff Arsenal. She moved out of the state because she didn't see any safe way to destroy the weapons.She thought incineration was a very bad idea. Hope your not downwind.
Arkansas arsenal begins destroying weapons3/29/2005, 11:47 p.m. ETBy DAVID HAMMER The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Pine Bluff Arsenal began destroying its stockpile of 3,850 tons of chemical weapons Tuesday, incinerating two rockets laced with sarin nerve gas.
We are making chemical weapons history by destroying weapons stored here more than 60 years," said Dale Ormond, deputy assistant secretary of the Army.
Another 28 rockets were scheduled to be destroyed Wednesday.
The arsenal showed video of the automated process inside the disposal facility. The rockets were punctured with three holes and drained. The chemical agent flowed into an incineration furnace.
Meanwhile, the rocket tubes were sliced into eight pieces and fed into a separate furnace, where they were "safely and irreversibly destroyed," said Randy Long, Pine Bluff Arsenal's site project manager.
Twelve percent of the nation's chemical weapons are stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, and the military plans to incinerate all of them by 2010 to comply with an international treaty that says countries must destroy their stockpiles by 2012. Chemical weapons have also been incinerated at other military depots.
M-55 rockets are loaded with sarin nerve gas and have propellants and rocket motors.
Opponents fearful of some kind accident have not had much success in recruiting members in Arkansas, where the community has welcomed the arsenal's jobs and federal funding.
At Anniston, Ala., where disposal of a smaller stockpile started in 2003, authorities distributed gas masks to surrounding communities, but Pine Bluff Arsenal officials determined that was not necessary.
The rockets have been stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, about 40 miles south of Little Rock, since the early 1960s.
•__
posted by ... @ 9:13 PM
1 Comments:
Hey, found your blog during a search to find out what zone we are in and what to do to prepare in case of an accident after hearing commercials on the radio. Couldn't remember the exact URL they gave to find out this info, haven't been able to find it, and thought you might be able to help. I live in Pine Ridge in Montgomery Country, AR, about halfway between Mena and Mt. Ida, and about an hour from Hot Springs - 2 hours from Little Rock. If you have any more info on this or could point me in the right direction to find it, it would be most helpful, as we have noticed that more and more commercials warning residents about this are on the radio emphasizing that no one knows what to do. They actually even chuckle about it, as if it were funny! Not at all funny to me!
As I was in the Army at one time and was trained to deal with this stuff should I come across it on the battlefield, I have a better understanding and a lot more concern than most, but short of getting everyone here a gas mask and sealing the whole house up, I am not certain what exactly we need to do this far away, and especially not for all of the animals we have. The only thing I am sure of is that they are dealing with pretty dangerous stuff and that it is way, WAY too close for comfort!!!
Thanks for posting this. Your site actually had more info than any of the official sites I have looked at. Guess they don't want to tell everyone to put their heads between their legs and kiss their asses goodbye!
Post a Comment
<< Home