US Army closes chemical weapons furnace after possible sarin leakage
PLA Daily 2004-02-06
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The US Army has shut down a chemical weapons incinerator following an alarm on Wednesday afternoon indicating a possible leak of sarin, a deadly nerve agent.
The Army said on Thursday that no one was injured and there was no threat to residents in the surrounding community in Anniston, in the southeastern US state of Alabama. There are some 35,000 people living within 15 km of the incinerator.
Authorities were trying to find out the source of the chemical agent that triggered the alarm, in an observation corridor outsidea room that houses equipment for the incineration process.
The alarm indicated a minute amount of chemical agent in the area, the Army said.
The incinerator, which went into operation in August last year and was the Army's first to be located in a populated area, has destroyed over 10,000 rockets loaded with deadly chemicals.
The Army said it would take seven years to destroy the nearly 700,000 munitions that has been stored in the Army depot for more than 40 years.
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