Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Hermiston incinerated the last of the chemical weapons stored there.
Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Hermiston incinerated the last of the chemical weapons stored there.
The…depot once stored 12 percent of the United States’ chemical weapons, including deadly VX nerve agent and blistering mustard agent.
Work to begin incinerating the weapons began seven years ago to meet a 2012 deadline imposed by the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty. Depot employees watched on a closed-circuit television screen as the last ton-size container of mustard agent was incinerated, applauding when the job was done.
“The end of nearly 50 years of chemical agents at Umatilla Chemical Depot has now come to a close,” depot spokesman Michael Fletcher said in a telephone interview. “The local communities and the state of Oregon are a lot safer place now.”
Read more at Capital Press.
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