[CPEO-MEF] CHEMWEAPONS: Explosive destruction questioned

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Army might blow up some chemical weapons

BY JEFFREY MCMURRAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS/Louisville Courier-Journal (KY)
FEBRUARY 19, 2010

RICHMOND, Ky. - Under the gun to destroy the U.S. chemical weapons 
stockpiles - and now all but certain to miss their deadline - Army 
officials have a plan to hasten the process: Blow some of them up.

The plan calls for the Army to use explosives to destroy some of the 
Cold War-era weapons, which contain some of the nastiest compounds ever 
made, at facilities in Richmond and Pueblo, Colo., that beat back 
another combustion-based plan years ago.

"Explosions of any kind have never been on the table," said Craig 
Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, a citizens' 
advocacy organization that monitors plans for weapons destruction at the 
Bluegrass Army Depot near Richmond. "This is not a technology that I 
would have chosen for this job. However, if using it significantly 
reduces the risk to the workforce, we need to give it serious 
consideration."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100219/NEWS01/2190370/Army+might+blow+up+some+chemical+weapons

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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


_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org