Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (also called Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility) or TOCDF, is a U.S. Army facility located at Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah and is used for dismantling chemical weapons. Destruction is a requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention and is monitored by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Deseret Chemical Depot held 44% of the nation's chemical stockpile since 1942. Tooele was constructed in the early 1990s and began destruction of chemical agent-filled munitions on August 22, 1996. As of September 2011, the facility has processed 99% of its stockpile Tooele has processed all of its GB, and sarin along with most of its mustard gas. A small stockpile of Lewisite still remains. In advance of plant closing, two ponds were revitalized and the surrounded area reseeded as well as 29 miles of railroad being removed (out of 40-miles of rail in Deseret). Disposal concluded on January 21, 2012. It was the last depot to complete its disposal operations under the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency; although two other depots still store chemical weapons to be destroyed by another Army program.

GB campaign

Each of the weapons listed contained Sarin (GB)

• 28,945 – 115 mm self-propelled rockets (M55) containing 154.86 short tons
• 1,056 – M56 warheads, which are M55 rockets without the rocket motor containing 5.65 tons
• 119,400 – 105 mm cartridges (M360) containing 97.31 tons
• 679,303 – 105 mm projectiles (M360) containing 553.63 tons
• 67,685 – 155 mm projectiles (M121/A1) containing 219.98 tons
• 21,456 – 155 mm projectiles (M122) containing 69.73 tons
• 888 – Weteye Bombs containing 154.07 tons
• 4,463 – 750-pound bombs (MC-1) containing 490.93 tons
• 5,709 – Ton Containers containing 4,299.10 tons

All sarin, totaling 6,045.26 tons was disposed of by March 2002.

VX campaign

After completion of the GB campaigns, the plant was converted to dispose of similar weapons containing VX agent:

• 3,966 – M55 Rocket containing 19.83 tons
• 3,560 – M56 Rocket Warhead containing 17.80 tons
• 53,216 – M121/A1 155 mm Projectile containing 159.65 tons
• 22,690 – M23 Land Mine containing 119.12 tons
• 862 – TMU-28 Spray Tank containing 584.44 tons
• 640 – Ton Container containing 455.48 tons

Totaling 1,356.32 tons of disposed VX.

The VX campaign completed processing chemical munitions on 3 June 2005, and completed processing containers contaminated with VX or residual products in October 2005.

Mustard Agent campaign

As of October 17, 2010

• 5,463 mustard agent-filled ton containers
• 54,453 mustard agent-filled 155mm projectiles
• 63,274 mustard agent-filled 4.2-inch mortars
• 86.86% of total mustard agent stockpile

After August 2006, the machinery was converted to handle munitions and ton containers which hold mustard gas (also known as mustard agent, H, HD, or HT). Operations to destroy the base's mustard gas stockpile were complete on January 21, 2012.

Weapons disposal process

Workers load the final VX agent-filled M55 Rocket onto the processing line for destruction on Nov. 17, 2003.

The destruction process involves receiving the items in protective containers from a covered, protected storage area, and placing the items onto trays for insertion into the automated processing area.

Inside the first automated area, called the Explosion Containment Room, explosive components are removed from the items and destroyed in a rotating kiln called the Deactivation Furnace System.

The items then move to another automated area called the Munition Processing Bay, where the liquid agent is sucked out and sent to holding tanks.

The mostly-empty items are then moved through a high-temperature (maximum 2,000 °F or 1,100 °C) oven called the Metal Parts Furnace, which destroys the residual agent so that the items can be safely disposed of as scrap metal.

The liquid agent is destroyed in one of two high-temperature (maximum 2,700 °F or 1,500 °C) ovens called Liquid Incinerators. The products of combustion from the ovens and kilns pass through extensive Pollution Abatement Systems, which catch the airborne products as salts, and hold them in a liquid slurry called brine, which is periodically shipped to out-of-state underground disposal facilities.

See also

• Deseret Test Center
• United States and weapons of mass destruction
• Tooele Army Depot

References

• Chemical Materials Agency: Utah

Further reading

• National Research Council (1997). Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=HmErAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 

External links

• Official site