Newport Chemical Depot (NECD)
Newport, Indiana
The nerve agent VX stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana is stored in 1,690 steel ton containers commonly known as "TCs". These containers are designed specifically for the maintenance, storage, and transportation of bulk chemical agent. The Newport Chemical Depot (NECD) stores bulk nerve agent VX in ton containers that are over six and one-half feet long, and almost three feet in diameter. The solid steel sidewalls are roughly a half inch thick, and each end is about one inch thick. When empty, the containers weigh 1,600 pounds. When filled to capacity, the containers can hold up to 170 gallons of liquid, though the TCs stored at Newport have a layer of nitrogen gas that occupies a 10 percent void within the TC. Ton containers are designed to withstand pressures up to 25 times greater than the pressure of our atmosphere, and internal pressures up to 500 pounds per square inch. The ton containers at Newport are stacked in rows three containers high, and are clamped together for stability on top of wooden concave cradles inside a single warehouse of corrugated steel sheet metal supported by steel beams. In order to provide maximum protection to facility personnel and the environment, storage personnel are trained in handling ton containers storing chemical agent and monitoring the containers for signs of leakage.
The Newport Chemical Depot employs numerous security measures to ensure the safety of the stockpile. The depot entrances are guarded 24-hours per day and the outer perimeter is secured by a single chain link barbed wire fence. The storage area is surrounded by double fences and equipped with intrusion detection devices and television monitors. In addition, personnel entering the area must follow strict safety and security procedures.
The chemical agent storage area has alarms and detection systems that monitor the air 24-hours per day for signs of chemical agent release. In addition, four Automatic Continuous Air Monitoring Systems (ACAMS) monitor the storage building. Should the ACAMS detect chemical agent vapor, it would activate a series of alarms, both visual and audible, and alert emergency response teams. Certified personnel also conduct visual monitoring regularly to inspect the condition of the ton containers housed in the storage building. If a ton container shows evidence of leaking, detailed emergency response procedures are in place to rectify the problem and to protect the health of site personnel and the community.
The Newport Chemical Depot will continue to store bulk chemical agent in ton containers until it is safely disposed of by the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program. Once the agent has been removed, the containers will be cleaned and decontaminated in accordance with federal, state and local laws, and then shipped off-site for recycling.
On February 18, 1999, the Army awarded the $295 million contract to Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, Inc., and its partnership team headed by AlliedSignal to complete the facility design; build, operate and close the disposal facility. Within a year, construction was scheduled to begin on this new facility that will destroy 1,269 tons of liquid VX stored in carbon steel ton containers. The Parsons-AlliedSignal Team will dispose of the Newport stockpile using a low-pressure, low-temperature neutralization process, followed by a post-treatment process called supercritical water oxidation (SCWO)which reduces the neutralized by product to distilled water and salt.
Disposal Schedule: Construction: 2000-2002* Testing: 2002-2003* Operations: 2004* Closure: 2005* * Dates are based on using the neutralization process
Testing began on a chemical reactor at the Newport Chemical Depot near Terre Haute, Indiana on Friday morning.  If successful, the reactor will be put to use destroying the large VX nerve gas stockpiles stored at the facility over the course of the next two years.  
After the disposal project experienced several delays, the facility announced it would begin pumping VX into a completed disposal unit for testing.  The unit consists of a chemical reactor in which the VX will be mixed with water and sodium hydroxide, heated to 194°F while mixed with paddles. The resulting chemical, called hydrolysate, is chemically similar to commercial drain cleaners and has similar properties.  If the test is successfully completed , the unit will continue processing the VX until the entire stockpile has been neutralized, a process projected to take two years.  Administrators expect to complete testing on May 10, 2005.


According to the controversial plan, the finished waste product would be shipped to New Jersey for final reprocessing. The inert chemical would then be emptied into the Delaware River where natural attenuation would occur. 

Residents near the proposed river disposal site in New Jersey oppose this idea.  The contractor for the final component of this disposal would be the DuPont Corporation.

====Background on Newport Chemical Depot (NCD)====
dangerous goods, class 2.3 ( GNU license)      
NCD is a bulk chemical storage and destruction facility in west central Indiana, thirty miles north of Terre Haute.  Originally founded during World War II to produce RDX, a conventional explosive, it later became a site for chemical weapons manufacturing during the Cold War.  It is now used to securely store and gradually neutralize part of the US stockpile of VX. 

VX was manufactured by the U.S. in the 1950s and 60's as a deterrent to possible Soviet Union use. It was never deployed, and the manufacture was halted in 1969 after an order signed by then-president Richard Nixon.

In 1999, the Army announced it awarded a disposal contract to Parsons Infrastructure & Technology, Inc., a business unit of Parsons Corporation.  Some 220 civilian Parsons employees work at the facility, which is supervised by an Army officer reporting to the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, and a board of civilian government overseers called the Indiana Citizens' Advisory Commission, some of whose members are appointed by the state governor.

Security at the facility is controversial.  A private security service, supplemented by a complement of Indiana National Guard soldiers, guarded the facility until April 14, 2005, when the soldiers were withdrawn.  An Indianapolis television station has questioned security measures in some of its special reports.