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Title: 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 ·
OSTI ID:6060484

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
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English