Chemical Depot Reaches Destruction Milestone

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Forty-five percent of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons has now been destroyed, thanks in large part to work at the Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele. The milestone comes six months before a December 31st deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Treaty of 1997. Depot Commander Colonel Frederick Pellissier attributes the success, in large part, to support from Tooele County officials and residents:

"The public in the local areas feels comfortable with our destruction processes and feels that we're doing an important mission safely," says Colonel Pellissier.

The Deseret Chemical Depot once had over 44-percent of the entire U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons and has destroyed eight-thousand tons of it since 1996. Pellissier says they have destroyed all of the nerve agent, and are now incinerating mustard agent which causes victims to break out in large blisters:

"We drain the agent from one-ton containers and put it in a liquid incinerator that burns the agent - which actually acts as a fuel in the process," says Pellissier. "Then we run the ton containers that have been drained through a metal parts furnace for several hours to ensure that all of the chemcial agent has been consumed."

Those empty containers are then routinely monitored to ensure all the mustard agent has been destroyed, says Pellissier. By 2012, the U.S. has committed to destroy 100-percent of its chemical stockpile.

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