Preliminary assessment of the health and environmental impacts of incinerating M55 rockets stored at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Lexington-Blue Grass Depot Activity, and/or Anniston Army Depot at Pine Bluff Arsenal

Technical Report · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6060484

Boyette, J A; Breck, J E; Coleman, P R; Griffin, G D; Hillsman, E L; Johnson, P E; Kornegay, F C; Schweitzer, M; Sigal, L L; Thomas, G A

The purpose is to provide an assessment of the potential health and environmental impacts associated with converting and operating an incineration facility currently under construction at Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) in Arkansas. The plant is currently designed to dispose of the incapacitating agent BZ, and the converted plant would be designed to incinerate M55 rockets containing the nerve agent GB or VX. For the purposes of this study, the rockets to be incinerated at PBA are those currently stored at PBA and possibly those currently stored at Lexington-Blue Grass Depot Activity in Kentucky and/or at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. The assessment considers impacts on air quality, ground and surface water, aquatic ecology, terrestrial ecology, human health, and cultural and socioeconomic resources at PBA and its host region. The assessment considers three basic scenarios during plant operations: normal operations, a minor spill of agent (i.e., the nerve-agent contents of one rocket being released to the biosphere), and an onsite transport accident (i.e., vaporization or aerosolization of the contents of two rockets and a spill of the remaining 13 rockets from an M55 rocket pallet) during disposal operations. For our assessment of accident impacts, we considered two separate sets of meteorological conditions: (1) conservative most likely and (2) worst-case.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6060484
• Report Number(s): ORNL-6197; ON: DE86007945
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ARKANSAS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
COMBUSTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FEDERAL REGION VI
GAS SPILLS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INCINERATORS
MILITARY FACILITIES
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDATION
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA
WEAPONS