[Environment Report]:U.S. Begins Chemical Weapons Burn


This is the VOA Special English Environment Report.

In the United States, the Army has started to destroy oldchemical weapons at a base in the southern state of Alabama. Theoperation began last Saturday at a storage center near the city ofAnniston.

This is the first time the United States military has burnedchemical weapons near a populated area. About thirty-five thousandpeople live within fifteen kilometers of the base.

Environmental and civil rights groups appealed to a federal courtin Washington to block the action. But a judge ruled that theopponents failed to show that the operation is a serious risk to thepublic.

The Army is destroying shells, rockets and other weapons. Thesecontain deadly chemicals such as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas.Workers will remove the chemicals and cut the weapons into piecesfor burning at almost six-hundred degrees Celsius. The Army willalso burn the chemicals when enough is collected in a storage tank.The Army says it expects the process to take seven years.

Workers in Alabama handled ten rockets last weekend. But the Armysaid equipment problems delayed the operation early this week. AnArmy spokesman said there was no danger of a chemical release.

The Army prepared for the burn, and dealt with legal opposition,for several years. Army officials are providing protective clothingand equipment to people who live near the base. Warning systems andescape plans have been established.

Opponents, however, say they do not believe the burning is safe.And they say some schools have not yet received equipment to keepout dangerous chemicals if an accident happens. Army officials saythey will carry out only limited burns until schools and communitycenters are fully protected.

The military says destroying the old weapons is safer thanstoring them. About seven-hundred-thousand weapons have been storedat the base since the nineteen-sixties. They have been kept inconcrete structures covered in earth. But Army officials say thatsome of the chemicals have begun to leak.

The Army also has bases to burn chemical weapons in the state ofUtah and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. But those bases arefar from populated areas.

This VOA Special English Environment Report was written byCynthia Kirk.

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