Published: February 02, 2006 11:48 pm         

VX destruction costs estimated at $1.2 billion

The cost of the project to destroy VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot VX is now estimated at $1.2 billion.

The total includes the $782 million value of the contract for the designer/operator of the destruction facility, Parsons Technologies. Of the $782 million, $196 million is for a contract modification recently awarded to Parsons to extend its work to an estimated 30 months, from seven months, said Col. Jesse Barber, project manager for the Army’s Alternative Technologies and Approaches Project. The contract does not include hydrolysate treatment at an off-site facility, he said.

Hydrolysate, the liquid byproduct of VX neutralization, continues to be stored in special transportable containers until the Army determines how it will be further treated for final disposal. VX neutralization is expected to create more than 2 million gallons of hydrolysate, a caustic liquid the Army compares to drain pipe cleaner.

The hydrolysate can be stored in these containers indefinitely, Barber said.

He hopes to transport the VX hydrolysate to a commercial hazardous waste water treatment facility for final disposal, he said.

“We are waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on DuPont’s new technologies,” he said. He believes it will be favorable, he said. “The CDC report is expected within a few months.”

DuPont, a candidate for disposal of the hydrolysate, runs a commercial hazardous wastewater treatment plant in New Jersey.

Super critical water oxidation (aka SCWO), a method Lexington/Blue Grass Depot in Kentucky plans to use to dispose of three different hydrolysates that will be created at that depot, needs more research and development to be effective with VX hydrolysate, said Joe Novad, technical director for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternative program, the oversight agency for the Blue Grass program. He said the final design for the SCWO reactors used at the Kentucky depot won’t be ready until 2007.

Parsons is beginning to increase the amount of VX destroyed per day.

“Our goal is to neutralize four one-ton containers of VX per day,” Barber said. “The CDC has already approved transporting the hydrolysate,” he said. “I expect it to approve DuPont’s new technology for final treatment of the hydrolysate. If I can destroy the hydrolysate within the next 12 months, we will meet our 2007 deadline.”

If for any reason the hydrolysate can’t be transported to New Jersey, the cost to maintain the Newport Chemical Depot until the hydrolysate is treated and disposed of is $360,000 a day, Barber said. He said he also will begin looking at disposal alternatives for the hydrolysate after the CDC report is issued and he has an opportunity to review it — providing the DuPont technology isn’t acceptable.

After he reviews the report, he will schedule a meeting with the citizens in Newport and the Wabash Valley to discuss any issues, he said.

Novad said SCWO technology will work at Blue Grass because the mustard and GB nerve agent hydrolysates are less caustic than VX hydrolysate. He said 21/2 parts of those two hydrolysates will be mixed with one part VX hydrolysate when it is treated in the SCWO reactor.

Mixing the hydrolysates reduces the caustic nature of the batches to be treated so the liners in the SCOW reactors will last longer, Novad said.

“During a two-year process, we will only have to change the liners 230 times or seven to eight times a month,” he said.

The off-site treatment of VX hydrolysate is more cost effective, Barber said.

“I’m shooting from the hip but it would be comparable to what I spent in Aberdeen for mustard (agent) hydrolysate treatment, which is less than $100 million,” he said.

Patricia Pastore can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or pat.pastore@tribstar.com.