News Releases
TBE Helps Army Reach Milestone at Pine Bluff Arsenal
8/30/2006 2:17:34 PM
PINE BLUFF ARSENAL, Ark. ? Rapid Response System (RRS) operators celebrated a major milestone here Wednesday when they completed destruction of the largest known inventory of K941 chemical agent identification sets (CAIS).
The milestone marked destruction of 4,906 K941 items by the Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project's RRS operation. A total of 481 additional CAIS items remain with scheduled completion in October after a brief changeover procedure.
The RRS began operations here in August 2005 for a scheduled multi-year mission to destroy more than 5,000 CAIS items. These items were once used to train Soldiers and civilians to identify and handle chemical agents. More than 170,000 CAIS items were manufactured and distributed from 1928 until 1969 throughout the United States. The sets of glass vials, bottles and ampoules contain small dilute quantities of the chemical agents mustard and lewisite. RRS, a transportable treatment system, safely identifies and neutralizes chemical agents in CAIS using a contained glove-box system with on-site monitoring and laboratory support.
System Manager Rick DiMauro said this mission has been a team effort not only between NSCMP, the arsenal and the state of Arkansas, but with contractors Teledyne-Brown and their professional personnel at the RRS site.
“We could not have reached this milestone without the support of a lot of great people,” he said. “We're looking forward to completing this project ahead of schedule.”
This specific mission, the system's largest CAIS destruction project to date, is one of several non-stockpile projects at the arsenal. Others include the Pine Bluff Munitions Assessment System, which is identifying contents of recovered munitions; the Ton Container Decontamination Facility; the Binary Destruction Facility, which is destroying the last of the nation's binary chemicals; and the Explosive Destruction System, which is destroying approximately 1,200 recovered chemical warfare materiel items. NSCMP also is destroying remaining elements of the Integrated Binary Production Facility.