Army Begins Burning Chemical Arms in Ala.; enough sarin to wipe out a city

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> Army Begins Burning Chemical Arms in Ala.

>

>

> By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer

>

> ANNISTON, Ala. - Most people paid no attention Saturday when the Army

fired

> up its first chemical weapons incinerator located near a residential area

> to destroy two rockets loaded with enough sarin nerve agent to wipe out a

> city.

>

> Workers wearing protective gear loaded the 6 1/2-foot-long rocket onto a

> conveyor belt and sent it into a sealed room, where it was drained of 1.2

> gallons of the deadly chemical and chopped into eight pieces.

>

> Those pieces were fed into an 1,100-degree furnace, producing slag that

> will be trucked to a hazardous waste landfill in western Alabama. The

sarin

> was directed to a holding tank, to be held until there is enough to burn

in

> a large batch, probably in late October.

>

> Processing the first rocket took 36 minutes, slower than normal to make

> sure everything was working properly. " The operation was flawless, " Army

> project manager Tim Garrett said.

>

> Workers dismantled a second rocket before calling it a day Saturday.

>

> Just outside the incinerator gate, Roger Johnson didn't even bother to use

> his protective mask and safety gear while he cut grass at the county

landfill.

>

> " It's more dangerous going down I-20, " the main highway through Anniston,

> Johnson said.

>

> One protester showed up at the gate. Rufus Kinney of nearby Jacksonville

> said the Army should not have started before everyone had safety

equipment.

>

> " They'll blow up west Anniston one night when we least expect it, " Kinney

> said.

>

> A judge gave final clearance Friday for the $1 billion project, capping

> years of preparation and legal challenges.

>

> The Army planned to destroy as many as 10 of the M-55 rockets this weekend

> at the Anniston Army Depot and slowly increase to a rate of 40 rockets an

> hour by next year.

>

> The Army's other incinerators are in more remote locations: Johnston Atoll

> in the Pacific Ocean and in the desert near Tooele, Utah. Another

> incinerator is being tested at Pine Bluff Arsenal near Pine Bluff, Ark., a

> city of about 55,000, and is expected to begin burning chemical weapons

> late next year.

>

> The military is still handing out protective hoods and other safety gear

to

> many of the 35,000 people who live within nine miles of the Anniston

> incinerator, and some schools in the area have yet to be outfitted with

> special ventilation equipment designed to keep out lethal fumes in case of

> an accident.

>

> Sarin, also known as " GB, " is so deadly a drop on the skin can kill.

>

> The military contends incinerating the weapons is far safer than storing

> them. Incinerator spokesman Mike Abrams said the nerve agent VX and

mustard

> gas also are stored at Anniston, but officials decided to begin with sarin

> rockets because nearly 800 of them are leaking.

>

> Nearly 700,000 munitions weighing 2,254 tons have been stored at the depot

> for more than 40 years in earth-covered, concrete-reinforced bunkers.

>

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>