In January, the Army will begin testing the chemical weapons incinerator at the Anniston Army Depot. During those tests, the Army will try to demonstrate the plant's maximum rate of destroying the weapons while staying within set emissions boundaries.
The rate is governed by a health risk assessment, approved by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tim Garrett, the Army's project manager at the incinerator, likened it to test-driving a fast car.
"You prove you can run it at 120 mph, but you don't drive it at 120 mph in daily driving," he said.
The Army also will have to prove that it can destroy 99.9999% of a surrogate material that is equally difficult or more difficult to destroy than nerve agent. That demonstration will include six-hour test burns over a one- to two-week period.
Incineration opponents question whether the surrogate trial burn will accurately reflect the real-world conditions, while the Army says it designed the surrogate trial burn to simulate the destruction of the weapons.
The Anniston plant has four incinerators - a liquid nerve agent incinerator; a metal parts furnace to destroy non-explosive munitions parts, a deactivation furnace system to burn explosives, fuses, propellants and residual agent, and a dunnage incinerator to burn contaminated articles such as pallets and clothing.
Garrett said he expects to show that the incinerator can theoretically destroy 34 rockets an hour.
"Thirty-four is the thermal capacity, but the destruction rate is probably not close to that at a steady state," he said. "We'll probably do 15 to 20 an hour, but the idea is to prove 30 and do less."
During the surrogate trial burn, the tests will center on the liquid incinerator, the deactivation furnace system and the metal parts furnace.
In the liquid incinerator, The Army will use 1,2,4 - trichlorobenzene and liquid tetrachloroethylene. According to the EPA's ranking system, the compounds are more difficult to destroy than nerve agent. Tetrachloroethylene is a drying agent for metals and a cleaning solvent, while 1,2,4 - trichlorobenzene is used in dies and lubricants.
In the deactivation and metal parts furnaces are liquid monochlorobenzene and solid hexachloroethane. Monochlorobenzene is used in solvents and pesticides while hexachloroethane, a solid, is used in explosives and solvents.
Those compounds will account for the gelled rockets, believed to be 30 percent of the Anniston Army Depot's stockpile of M55 rockets.
The chemicals also are spiked with metals to provide a worst-case scenario based on the highest concentrations seen at other incinerators.
Craig Williams, of the anti-incineration Chemical Weapons Working Group, said the burn does not accurately reflect the difficulty of destroying gelled rockets, and says burning gelled rockets is unproven.
Williams cites a 1994 report from the National Research Council, which said chemical agents and munitions materials have successfully been divided into four distinct process streams that have widely differing properties. Separation of these materials for processing in distinct well-engineered systems provides safer and more reliable operations than would processing of a mixed stream in a single process."
To destroy gelled rockets, the Army will chop them into several pieces and feed them into the deactivation furnace. The Army used this process at incinerators on Johnston Atoll and in Tooele, Utah.
Williams said the process violates the NRC report and has never been scientifically proven as safe and effective.
Garrett said the Tooele incinerator has proven that burning gelled rockets does work.
The Tooele plant burns approximately 1.6 rockets per hour while destroying other weapons at the same time. Because of the small number of gelled M55 sarin rockets in Utah and the multi-million-dollar cost of more trial burns, the Army decided not to seek a permit modification to destroy them at a faster rate.
Utah has roughly 1,400 gelled sarin rockets. Anniston could have as many as 10,000.
Williams said he thinks the Army didn't want to seek a permit modification because it would require further testing, and the effectiveness of burning gelled rockets might be drawn into question.
As for the surrogate trial burn in Anniston, Williams said it is extremely advantageous for the Army. The incinerator is allowed to fail the tests, but as soon as it passes it can receive a permit. Once it has passed the tests, Williams said, the Army might not be able to guarantee that it will stay in compliance for the duration of the burn.
Garrett said the surrogate trial burn defines the parameters the Army must stay within. The Army monitors the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide coming from the stack to ensure it is getting complete destruction. If those levels go out of compliance or if the sensors break down, the system automatically shuts down.
After the Army completes the surrogate trial burn it will test-burn actual munitions. That test is slated for late spring 2002.
