Army goes with "EDS" for Non-Stockpile Chemical Disposal at Pine Bluf

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

As I reported last week, the National Research Council (National Academy
of Sciences) issued a report, "Assessment of the Army Plan for the Pine
Bluff Non-Stockpile Facility." The news articles linked below confirm
that the Army had agreed to implement the NRC Committee's expected
primary recommendation months before it was finalized through the formal
NRC process.

In brief, the report called for the Army to reconsider its plan to build
a fixed neutralization facility in Pine Bluff to destroy recovered
chemical weapons currently stored there. Instead, it supported a
facility based upon the proven Explosive Destruction System (EDS), a
transportable unit (in two sizes) that uses small explosive charges to
split open chemical munitions, and then neutralizes any chemical agent
through chemical reactions.

Among its reasons for preferring the EDS, the NRC Committee - upon which
I served - found:
"While community preference is in itself not a sufficient reason to
switch technologies midway in the PBNSF [Pine Bluff Non-Stockpile
Facility] development process, community opposition could easily derail
an Army proposal to replace the current PBNSF design with multiple EDSs.
Through either political or legal action, opponents could delay and
perhaps prevent such a change. In this case, however, all evidence
suggests that both the Pine Bluff community and the national activist
public that follows chemical weapons disposal would welcome an EDS-based facility."


http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2004/03/09/WashingtonDCBureau/140468.html
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2004/03/12/WashingtonDCBureau/150475.html


To order the NRC report, or read it on line, go to
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/10930.html

Lenny

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CPEO: A DECADE OF SUCCESS.  Your generous support will ensure that our 
important work on military and environmental issues will continue.  
Please consider one of our donation options.  Thank you.
http://www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2086-0|721-0