Agent and Munitions Stockpile

Recommendation 1. The Army should continue to select technologies and implement programs at disposal facilities that ensure the expeditious disposal of the chemical agents and munitions stockpile and minimize overall risk to workers and the public at each site. 

Most of the chemical agent and munitions stockpile is stored at eight Army depots in the continental United States at Anniston, Alabama Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pueblo, Colorado Newport, Indiana Lexington, Kentucky Aberdeen, Maryland Umatilla, Oregon and Tooele, Utah. A portion of the stockpile is stored at two overseas locations (Germany, and Johnston Island in the Pacific). Figure 2.1 shows the storage locations in the continental United States. 

JACADS, the first fully integrated baseline incineration system for the disposal of stockpiled chemical agent and munitions, is located on Johnston Island, part of the Johnston Atoll, approximately 800 miles southwest of Hawaii. The facility occupies 130 acres of the 625-acre island and includes one large process building, with three furnaces and auxiliary equipment. 

In accordance with the terms of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which became effective April 29, 1997, the signatories, including the United States, are to have destroyed their stockpiles of chemical agents and munitions by April 29, 2007. 

Between 1990 and 2000, 2,031 tons of chemical agents were destroyed at JACADS, 6.4 percent of the 31,496 tons in the original U.S. chemical agent stockpile. Table 1-1 lists the chemical agents and munitions processed at JACADS. 

A key element of the mission of the CSDP is to eliminate safely the aging U.S. stockpile of chemical agents and munitions. The Army has in place safety and occupational and environmental health programs at chemical agent disposal facilities that have been visited by the Stockpile Committee (NRC, 2001). The committee found these programs to be comprehensive, professional, and adequate to meet the occupational health and safety needs of the CSDP workers as well as to protect the public and the environment (NRC, 2001). 

NRC. 1994b. Recommendations for the Disposal of Chemical Agents and Munitions. Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program, Board on Army Science and Technology. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press. 

Concurrent with the start of construction of JACADS in 1987, the Army requested that the NRC review and evaluate the CSDP and provide advice and counsel. The NRC established the standing Stockpile Committee for that purpose, beginning with a study of operational verification testing at JACADS, which was completed in March 1993. Several reports issued by the committee (e.g., Recommendations for the Disposal of Chemical Agents and Munitions [NRC, 1994a] and Review of Systemization of the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility [NRC, 1996]) concluded that the baseline incineration system was an adequate and safe method of disposing of the stockpile (see Appendix A for a complete list of Stockpile Committee reports). 

U.S. Army. 2002. Record of Decision, Chemical Stockpile Disposal Project, Destruction of the Chemical Agents and Munitions Stored at Pueblo Chemical Depot, Colorado, July 18. Available online at http //www. pmacwa.army.mil/co/ip/dl/acwa pueblo rod.pdf. Last accessed May 8, 2008. 

The factors in developing a QRA for a chemical agent and munitions storage and destruction site are shown in Figure E-1, which shows as the two primary sources of risk (1) the stockpile itself (storage risk) and (2) the destruction of the stockpile (processing risk). The actual risk posed by either or both sources depends on whether or not risk-initiating events occur. 

The NAS National Research Council endorsed the Army s disassembly and high-temperature incineration process for disposing of chemical agents and munitions. The council also recommended that the Army continue to store most of the chemical stockpile, dispose of the M55 rockets, and analyze alternative methods for disposing of the remaining chemical stockpile. 

The Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1986 (P.L. 99-145) mandated the destruction of the U.S. stockpile of lethal chemical agents and munitions. It also required the disposal facilities to be cleaned, dismantled, and disposed of according to applicable laws and regulations... 

The United States and other signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)i have committed to destroying all declared chemical warfare materiel (CWM) by April 29,2001 This materiel includes both stockpile materiel (all chemical agents and munitions available for use on the battlefield and stored at eight locations in the continental... 

In November 1985, Congress passed Public Law 99-145, requiring destruction of stockpile agents and munitions. 

The United States has maintained a stockpile of highly toxic chemical warfare agents and munitions for more than half a century. These chemical agents are designed to be lethal upon exposure. Stored as components of aging weapons systems, they present a growing risk to surrounding communities. 

NRC. 2004. Effects of Degraded Agent and Munitions Anomalies on Chemical Stockpile Disposal Operations. Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press. 

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