United States Army Chemical Materials Agency - Destruction

Destruction

CMA is responsible for two distinct chemical weapons destruction projects.

The Project Manager Chemical Stockpile Elimination manages the safe treatment and disposal of chemical weapons using incineration and neutralization technologies.

Incineration was selected as the Army’s chemical weapons disposal technology in 1985 based on rigorous tests and comparisons of various technologies. Anniston, Alabama, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Umatilla, Oregon, and Tooele, Utah, use incineration for chemical weapons destruction. The first incineration facility was built on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and safely completed destruction operations in November 2000. The facility was dismantled and the atoll was returned to its natural state and serves as a wildlife refuge.

Neutralization was first selected as an alternative to incineration for bulk agent storage sites. Depending on the type of agent to be destroyed, neutralization destroys the chemical agent by mixing it with hot water or hot water and sodium hydroxide. The industrial wastewater produced by the process, known as hydrolysate, is sent to a permitted commercial hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal facility for treatment and disposal. This process was used safely in Edgewood, Maryland, to eliminate its entire stockpile of mustard agent and in Newport, Indiana, to eliminate its entire stockpile of VX nerve agent. Both the mustard agent stockpile in Edgewood and the VX nerve agent stockpile in Newport were stored in large steel containers without explosives or other weapon components. Neutralization is the selected method for the Department of Defense’s Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives facilities in Pueblo, Colorado, and Richmond, Kentucky.

The Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project (NSCMP) was founded in 1992 to provide centralized management and direction to the Department of Defense for the destruction of declared non-stockpile chemical materiel in a safe, environmentally sound and cost-effective manner. The project’s responsibilities include assessment and treatment of recovered chemical warfare materiel declared prior to entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an international treaty signed by the United States. NSCMP’s non-intrusive assessment systems identify the chemical agent fill of recovered items and the presence or absence of explosive components, allowing for proper handling and treatment. The items can be treated in an on-site system that contains any blast, agent and vapor. NSCMP is best known for its history of responding to chemical weapons recovered at military installations, former defense sites and communities. NSCMP’s highly specialized equipment is employed in a manner that protects workers, citizens and the environment.

In December 2006, CMA successfully completed demolition of the nation’s former chemical warfare production facilities. In November 2007, it successfully completed destruction of the binary chemical weapon inventory. In January 2012, all chemical weapons had been destroyed at the 7 sites CMA had responsibility for, with 89.75% of the U.S.'s 1997 stockpile eliminated.