Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky are close to eliminating the last of thousands of rockets filled with nerve gas stored at the facility since the 1940s.
FILE-A worker in protective clothing checks a special storage area filled with M-55 rockets armed with sarin gas, a nerve agent, at an incinerator June 12, 1995 at the Tooele Army Depot, in Tooele, Utah. At a sprawling military installation in the middle of the rolling green hills of eastern Kentucky, a milestone is about to be reached in the history of warfare dating back to World War I.
"One thing that we’re really proud of is how we’re finishing the mission. We’re finishing it for good for the United States of America," said Kim Jackson, manager of the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant.Chemical weapons were first used in modern warfare in World War I, where they were estimated have killed at least 100,000.
"Those sitting out there were not a threat," Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar said. But, he added, "you always wondered what might happen with them." The project, however, has been a boon for both communities, and facing the eventual loss of thousands of workers, both are pitching the pool of high-skilled laborers as a plus for companies looking to locate in their regions.
Problematic munitions that were leaky or overpacked were sent to an armored, stainless steel detonation chamber to be destroyed at about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit .
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