Nellie Bly
11 May 2005, 09:58 AM
Wed May 11, 7:35 AM ET
RICHMOND, Ky. - Vapor from the deadly nerve agent sarin leaked from a stockpile of old rockets at the Blue Grass Army Depot, but officials said it posed no danger to the public.
The sarin vapor did not escape the sealed container, or "igloo," where the weapons are kept. Officials were filtering the air inside the igloo Tuesday before trying to enter the structure to secure the leaky rocket.
Workers discovered the leak when they tested the air inside the igloo, said Richard Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity, the Army unit charged with monitoring and securing chemical weapons.
The igloo, which contains about 2,500 rockets, is monitored daily because rockets there have leaked in the past, Sloan said.
A routine daily test Monday showed no evidence of a sarin leak, he said. But the test Tuesday detected a "small" amount of sarin, so a filtering machine was connected to the igloo to remove the contaminated air, Sloan said.
The last sarin leak at the depot was in 2000, officials said. The last chemical weapon leak there was in 2003, when mustard vapor seeped from an old projectile.
The Pentagon agreed last month to release funding to build a special facility to destroy the 523 tons of chemical agents stored in 45 igloos at the depot, and to build a similar facility at a depot in Pueblo, Colo. Seven such stockpiles exist nationwide.
RICHMOND, Ky. - Vapor from the deadly nerve agent sarin leaked from a stockpile of old rockets at the Blue Grass Army Depot, but officials said it posed no danger to the public.
The sarin vapor did not escape the sealed container, or "igloo," where the weapons are kept. Officials were filtering the air inside the igloo Tuesday before trying to enter the structure to secure the leaky rocket.
Workers discovered the leak when they tested the air inside the igloo, said Richard Sloan, public affairs officer for Blue Grass Chemical Activity, the Army unit charged with monitoring and securing chemical weapons.
The igloo, which contains about 2,500 rockets, is monitored daily because rockets there have leaked in the past, Sloan said.
A routine daily test Monday showed no evidence of a sarin leak, he said. But the test Tuesday detected a "small" amount of sarin, so a filtering machine was connected to the igloo to remove the contaminated air, Sloan said.
The last sarin leak at the depot was in 2000, officials said. The last chemical weapon leak there was in 2003, when mustard vapor seeped from an old projectile.
The Pentagon agreed last month to release funding to build a special facility to destroy the 523 tons of chemical agents stored in 45 igloos at the depot, and to build a similar facility at a depot in Pueblo, Colo. Seven such stockpiles exist nationwide.