No answer yet on what caused spill at nerve agent depot
NEWPORT, Ind. (AP) - Army contractors resumed inspecting a chemical reactor built to destroy a deadly nerve agent Monday, trying to determine what caused a weekend spill that forced a temporary halt to operations at the western Indiana complex.
On Saturday, nearly 500 gallons of caustic wastewater produced by the destruction of the VX nerve agent spilled in a contained area at the Newport Chemical Depot's disposal facility.
No workers were injured or exposed to the hydrolysate, a chemical the Army has compared to liquid drain cleaner.
Depot spokeswoman Terry Arthur said workers clad in protective suits entered the containment area several times over the weekend to clean up the spill and investigate what caused the leak at the complex 30 miles north of Terre Haute.
Workers with Army contractor Parsons Technology Inc. entered the containment area again Monday, searching for clues to what went wrong with one of the complex's two chemical reactors, she said.
Arthur said more than 400 gallons of the spilled hydrolysate have been pumped from the containment area and into holding tanks.
In May, work began to destroy Newport's more than 250,000 gallons of VX, a substance so toxic that a single droplet can kill a healthy human. The project was halted in June after a leak resulted in a spill of about 30 gallons of VX, sodium hydroxide and water. Work resumed at Newport in late August.
The June spill occurred when polymer-based components in one of the reactors' injection valves failed. Those valves have since been replaced with an all-metal ball bearing system that played no role in the latest spill, Arthur said.
Saturday's leak appears to have occurred in a recirculation loop used to sample each batch of hydrolysate, she said. The hydrolysate, which is created by mixing VX with heated water and sodium hydroxide, must contain no measurable amounts of VX.
Arthur said it was not clear when the VX destruction will resume.
"At this point we don't know how long we will be in suspension, so it's hard to say how it will impact the final schedule," she said.
Elizabeth Crowe, an organizer for the Berea, Ky.-based watchdog Chemical Weapons Working Group, said delays have been common at the nation's weapon-destruction facilities.
Newport is one of eight chemical weapons storage sites across the nation where the Army is working to destroy stockpiles as part of an international treaty.
Pending federal approval, the Army plans to ship millions of gallons of hydrolysate to a DuPont Inc., plant in New Jersey for treatment and eventual discharge into the Delaware River.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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