http://www2.arkansasonline.com/…
The Associated Press

WHITE HALL — The last VX nerve-agent rocket stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal has been destroyed, according to officials at the facility destroying the post’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

Destruction of the VX rockets began Oct. 11, and the operation was expected to take six months. With the destruction of the rockets completed, the facility will be made ready for destroying VX land mines, arsenal officials said, a process expected to take about four months.

Prior to chemical weapons disposal operations, the arsenal had for 60-plus years stored 3,850 tons of chemical agent, 12 percent of the Army’s original chemical weapons stockpile.

The VX rocket inventory consisted of 19,608 munitions, approximately 196,000 pounds of liquid agent, according to a news release from the weapons-destruction facility.

“With both the GB and VX rockets destroyed, the risk to the community has been reduced by 97 percent,” said Lt. Col. Clifton Johnston, commander of the disposal operation.

“With the end of VX rocket processing, the entire rocket stockpile has been eliminated at the arsenal,” said Mark Greer, site project manager.

Following completion of VX landmine disposal operations, a changeover period is planned to prepare for destruction of containers holding mustard gas, a blister agent. That will be the last stage of the disposal campaign at the arsenal.

The military began destroying the weapons in March 2005 in accordance with an international treaty.
This article was published Friday, February 29, 2008