Plan for destroying chemical weapons at Pueblo depot moves forward
The U.S. government wants to get rid of all of the chemical weapons in the country. The Pueblo Chemical Depot is helping to reach that goal.
The depot has 780,000 rounds full of mustard agent.
1,300 of those rounds will be disposed of in an Explosive Destructive System because they have leaks or other problems.
The broken shells will be placed in a chamber where they will be sealed, detonated and neutralized.
“The most hazardous part is getting the munition into the vessel because its operators handling the munitions,” Site Manager Steve Bird said.
The other rounds will be dismantled by a robot next year when the Pueblo Chemical Agent- Destruction Pilot Plant is operational.
Other chemical stockpiles are being destroyed at a chemical depot in Kentucky.
After the chemical weapons are destroyed at the depot in Pueblo, it will be shut down.
“Everyone will have a bridge, if they want to retire, that’s one bridge to cross. If they want to transfer to another facility, that’s another bridge,” Army Lt. Col. Michael Quinn said.
The Army plans to be done destroying all the chemical weapons at the Pueblo depot by 2019. After that, the site is expected to be transformed for manufacturing, distribution, warehousing and other purposes as part of the PuebloPlex project.
