Work on track at depot

This story was published Mon, Sep 11, 2000

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Oregon bureau

HERMISTON - First there was a mysterious leak that left more than 30 workers sick to their stomachs.

Then, a dead rabbit was discovered, sirens accidentally activated, about a dozen bomb threats, and, in the main ring, a battle of egos among emergency management personnel.

Now, the dust has settled and everybody is back to work and focusing on destroying deadly weapons sitting in Hermiston's back yard.

The Oregon Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program now hasa governing board, bringing new leadership and focus, dedicated to making sure everyone works efficiently and effectively together.

Surrounding cities, pleased with the leadership Lt. Col. Tom Woloszyn has provided at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, have written the Army, are asking that his command be extended past the usual two-year tour of duty.

Tone alert radios were delivered to every home near the depot - ahead of schedule.

And without a bomb threat interruption since late April, Raytheon workers have been able to concentrate on their job, arguably the most important one - building an incinerator to rid Oregon of the 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents stored seven miles west of Hermiston.

Under a backdrop of nearly constant controversy, the monstrous concrete and steel buildings have risen out of the desolate desert almost unnoticed.

Now that the plant is nearly 87 percent complete, the white-doored bunkers of K-block, where the deadly weapons are stored, resemble molehills compared with the massivecomplex of beige concrete and maze of smokestacks jutting from the dusty, brown horizon.

Most people refer to the project as the incinerator plant, but, actually, there will be five incinerators used to cremate the weapons, chemical agents, rocket pieces and casings, metal and other wastes leftover from the deadly stockpile.

Two identical liquid incinerators will be used to destroy the liquid nerve and mustard agents, explained Tom Beam, environmental engineer for the Department of Environmental Quality.

Each of the devices has two chambers. The deadly chemicals will be sprayed directly into the first chamber using nozzles and atomizing air, kind of like spray from an aerosol can, and burned at up to 2,700 degrees, Beam said.

The gases left over travel to the second chamber, which is kept a little cooler at 2,000 degrees, where they're baked a little longer.

Then, the gases flow to a pollution-control area, which uses water and chemicals to cool them down and remove any remaining pollutants before they travel out the stack and into the air.

Beam said there is very little waste left over in the liquid incinerators, but what is there - the slag - forms into a glassy, solid rock, made up of inorganic impurities and metals that collect in a bottom chamber.

"It generates this really pretty, obsidian rock," Beam said.

While the chemicals are being taken care of in the liquid incinerators, equipment that never held chemicals - including weapon casings and propellants, rocket pieces and shipping cases, mines and other metallic wastes will be destroyed in the deactivation furnace.

The furnace is a massive rotating kiln with a conveyor belt inside.

"The rotary kiln is the most versatile type of furnace, which can destroy both liquids and solids," said Nick Speed of the DEQ.

After the rockets are drained of chemical agent and sheared into pieces, the pieces, along with other munitions parts and waste will be dropped down feed chutes into the kiln, which is fueled with natural gas.

A conveyor belt moves the waste through the kiln.

The first section of the kiln burns at between 1,050 and 1,100 degrees. How long the munitions stay in the area depends on their size, Speed said.

Once they have been cremated, the metal and ash residue drop onto a heated discharge conveyor, where they are burned for at least 15 more minutes at 1,000 degrees.

The gas generated from the incineration flows through a "cyclone," where it's swirled like a tornado to remove any fiberglass pieces or other ash.

The ash then is packed into drums for disposal. The gas goes into an afterburner, where the temperature is kept at 2,150 degrees. Finally, the gas is sent through a pollution control area similar to the one in the liquid incinerator before it's released into the atmosphere.

The metal parts furnace will be used to destroy any bomb casings, empty projectiles or other metal containers that have contained chemical agent or munitions.

The natural gas-fired incinerator has three burning zones connected by a rolling conveyor belt, with air-lock chambers of each end to allow items to enter and leave the furnace without any vapor escaping.

The casings are brought from the area where they were dismantled and fed into the furnace on a conveyor belt.

How long it's heated in the first area depends on the type of munition. The temperatures in the first zone range from 1,450 to 1,600 degrees. In zones two and three, the burning process is repeated at about the same temperature.

Once the munitions have been burned the third time, they are moved into an isolated, air-lock area where they are cooled and monitored to confirm there is no chemical agent left.

If agent is detected, the conveyor can move the munitions back into the third zone to be heated again.

The gases travel up into an afterburner and are heated to 2,000 degrees before traveling through the pollution-control area and released.

The fourth type of incinerator, the dunnage incinerator, may not be used at the depot. Although in the plans, it has not yet been built, said Sue Oliver of the DEQ.

Dunnage incinerators are used at Army incineration plants at Tooele, Utah, and Johnston Atoll in the South Pacific to destroy wood left over from munition pallets and other materials.

But the large incinerators are slow and can be hazardous to use, Oliver said. "The Army is looking at other alternatives and other furnaces."

Construction started on the incinerator plant in June 1997, and it should be complete and ready for testing in May 2001. Incineration is scheduled to start in summer 2002.

Washington Demilitarization Company, which recently purchased Raytheon, has a $567 million Army contract to build, test, operate and close the incinerator plant.

The incineration work is expected to take about 40 months to complete and provide about 630 jobs at its peak.

 

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