![]() In the 1980s, the community around Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot rose up in opposition to the Army's initial plan to incinerate the plant's 520 tons of chemical weapons, leading to a decadeslong battle over how to dispose of them. But, he added, "you always wondered what might happen with them." "Those (weapons) sitting out there were not a threat," Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar said. The weapons' destruction alleviates longstanding concerns harbored by civic leaders in Colorado and Kentucky. Nearly 800,000 chemical munitions containing mustard agent were stored since the 1950s inside rows of heavily guarded concrete and earthen bunkers that pock the landscape near a large swath of farmland east of Pueblo. The projectiles and mortars comprised about 8.5% of the country's original chemical weapons stockpile of 30,610 tons of agent. ![]() In southern Colorado, workers at the Army Pueblo Chemical Depot started destroying the weapons in 2016, and on June 22 completed their mission of neutralizing an entire cache of about 2,600 tons of mustard blister agent. until 2012, at installations in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon and Utah, to continue the work of destroying the stockpile. Army utilized six more sites across the continental U.S. ![]() first began destroying them in 1990 on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. In 1986, Congress mandated the destruction of the U.S. Despite their subsequent ban by the Geneva Convention, countries continued to stockpile the weapons until the treaty calling for their destruction. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukraine has promised to use the munitions - bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets - carefully.Ĭhemical weapons were first used in modern warfare in World War I, where they were estimated to have killed at least 100,000. is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven't joined the agreement, military experts say.įriday's announcement came as the Biden administration has also decided to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, a weapon that two-thirds of NATO countries have banned because it can cause many civilian casualties. The rockets have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.īy destroying the munitions, the U.S. The munitions being destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with sarin, a deadly toxin that is also known as GB nerve agent. 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries. It's also a defining moment for arms control efforts worldwide. The weapons' destruction is a major watershed for Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo, Colorado, where an Army depot destroyed the last of its chemical agents last month. The Army is proud to have played a key role in making this demilitarization possible." Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in a statement, "After years of design, construction, testing and operations, these obsolete weapons have been safely eliminated. Biden also urged nations that have not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention to do so, "so that the global ban on chemical weapons can reach its fullest potential." And he said that, "Russia and Syria should return to compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and admit their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit brazen atrocities and attacks." ''They were really excited we were there to help,'' Arafa said.Mr. Karim Arafa, with Task Force17, spoke about how the medical partners reacted when the trucks rolled up. ''The office of public health preparedness continually plans for and exercises to ensure we are ready to respond to an incident, such as pandemic and biological-type outbreaks.''Īrmy Spc. ''This warehouse was acquired for the receiving of managed inventory from the as part of the strategic national stockpile,'' said Steve Kramer, a field coordinator with the SNHD. One of the shipments went out to Pahrump, and another was sent to Boulder City. More than 200,000 N95 masks, 260,000 gowns, 600,000 non-N95 masks, and 14,000 face shields were delivered to 22 facilities throughout the day. ![]() They distributed personal protective equipment to health care partners in response to the pandemic. In April, guardsmen with Task Force 17 started assisting the Southern Nevada Health District with warehouse operations in the valley.
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