Glitches Plague Army Chemical Weapons Incinerator Tests on Remote Pacific Atoll

Mechanical glitches are plaguing a trial run of the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator on this Pacific island, but officials expect to finish destroying deadly stockpiles on schedule.

It’s been a rough first few months for the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, the first of nine incinerators planned to rid the United States of its aging chemical weapons.

The high-tech incinerator, criticized by Pacific island leaders and environmental groups, has operated just 22% of the time since testing began in June, officials said.

The Army conducted the first media tour of the island and the incinerator plant Tuesday . About 70 reporters and photographers were given a tour.

The $240 million plant was built to destroy 300,000 aging chemical weapons moved here from Okinawa in 1971 and 100,000 rounds en route from Germany--6.6% of the U.S. stockpile--at this flat, wind-swept island 800 miles southwest of Honolulu.

About 1,300 people--civilian contract workers at the plant and military members--live on the island, which has no indigenous population.

The Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether to allow the Army to destroy more weapons after the test period is completed late next year. The operation is expected to wind up by 1995.

Charles Baronian, deputy program manager for the plant, said officials had hoped to have the plant working 70% of the time during a 16-month test. Although the glitches won’t doom the program, Baronian called them “very depressing for an engineer.”

“It’s not unusual for a brand new plant to have these kinds of problems,” Baronian said. “However, we’re seeing more of these types of problems than frankly we anticipated.”

The main problem, Baronian said, is debris jamming a conveyor that carries away nerve gas rocket parts after incineration. Any breakdown in the system shuts down the entire plant.

The glitches do not release any nerve gas and do not endanger plant employees. Still, Baronian said plant managers would rather err on the side of caution and shut down for any problem, no matter how minor.

The Army will use what it learns from this plant at eight planned mainland incinerators that are to destroy all aging weapons by 1997, as required by Congress.

Those plant sites are Umatilla, Ore.; Tooele, Utah; Pueblo, Colo.; Newport, Ind.; Aberdeen, Md.; Anniston, Ala.; Lexington, Ky.; and Pine Bluff, Ark. The Army decided the safest plan was to build incinerators where the weapons are stored.

Besides the breakdowns, the project has suffered from a public relations problem. Some Pacific leaders openly worry the plant may be used to incinerate hazardous waste and chemical munitions from mainland storage sites.

The South Pacific Forum, an organization of regional governments, claims the use of Johnston Atoll could make the region “the toxic waste disposal center of the world.”

Brig. Gen. Walter L. Busbee, program manager for chemical demilitarization, said Johnston would be out of the chemical weapons business when incineration winds up in 1994.