Trace of nerve gas found in bunker

This story was published Thu, May 3, 2001

By The Associated Press and the Herald staff

HERMISTON - A specially trained chemical operations crew detected a trace amount of nerve gas inside a storage bunker Wednesday at the U.S. Army's Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The vapor was detected around a ton container, a storage igloo that holds liquid nerve agent.

Depot officials said they believe one of the container's five plugs is releasing small amounts of the vapor into the bunker. As a precaution, an air-filtering device is filtering air from the structure.

Most of the ton containers on the base are filled with mustard gas, but there are a few used for storing sarin and Vx, which are nerve agents, said Mary Binder, depot spokeswoman.

Binder said that in the early 1980s, nerve agent from leaking bombs and rockets was drained and placed in ton containers.

Most of the weapons stored in the igloo previously have leaked and were "overpacked" for additional safety and protection before being moved there for storage. The bunker is monitored daily.

A chemical crew will tighten the plug on the container Thursday to stop the leak.

The leak was the second reported at the depot this year. The first was detected Feb. 28. The last time the depot reported a leak from a ton container was in 1993.

The depot stores more than 220,000 bombs, rockets and other weapons containing chemical and nerve agents in 89 storage igloos. The depot houses about 12 percent of the nation's chemical stockpile.

 

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