Nerve Agent Tank Springs a Tiny Leak
A tiny drop of the deadly nerve agent VX leaked from a storage tank at the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, but posed no hazard to public health, the Army said Monday.
Experts said VX is so lethal that one drop on the skin could kill a person in less than 10 minutes.
Workers at the facility, about 70 miles west of Indianapolis, detected condensation Thursday during one of two weekly inspections of the one-ton, carbon-steel canisters in which the aging nerve agent has been stored since 1968.
Maj. James E. Ewing, commander of the plant, said the leak was the first since the tanks were filled 23 years ago. An estimated 4 million pounds of VX is stored at the facility, which has about 280 employees.
The leak from the valve amounted to less than 1/50 of a standard drop, of no greater volume than the tip of a sharpened lead pencil.
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