Anniston Begins Burning Chemical Weapons

Date: August 6, 2003

Source: News Room

The Army has started up its first chemical weapons incinerator near a residential area, at Anniston, Alabama, and destroyed a Cold War-era rocket loaded with enough sarin to wipe out a city. The work capped years of preparation for the Army, which had to fight off legal challenges from opponents who argue that the process isn't safe. A judge on Friday gave final clearance for the $1 billion project to move ahead. The Army planned to destroy as many 10 rockets in the first weekend at Anniston and slowly increase to a rate of 40 rockets an hour by next year. Its other incinerators are on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and at Tooele, Utah, in the desert. Another incinerator is now being tested at Pine Bluff Arsenal near Pine Bluff, Ark., a city of about 55,000.

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