Report Backs Shipping Nerve Agent Waste
Army Report Backs Shipping Nerve Agent Waste From Indiana
NEWPORT, Ind. Apr 26, 2006 (AP)— An Army report concludes it would take nearly five years longer to finish destroying the deadly nerve agent VX if a plan to ship the resulting wastewater to New Jersey was dropped in favor of keeping it here.
The report released Tuesday said disposing the Cold War-era chemical weapon waste at the Newport Chemical Depot would cost at least $347 million more than having the work done at a DuPont Co. plant in Deepwater, N.J.
In May, an Army contractor began destroying VX a liquid so deadly even a tiny droplet can kill a human in special chemical reactors at the complex about 30 miles north of Terre Haute.
The project is expected to produce about 4 million gallons of hydrolysate, a chemical the Army wants to truck hundreds of miles to the DuPont plant, where it would be treated and discharged into the Delaware River.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1891030