Construction should be completed by the end of next year on a plant that will destroy chemical weapons at Kentucky’s Blue Grass Army Depot. The complex will then undergo four years of testing with as many as 10,000 simulated weapons before it is deemed ready to destroy weapons containing deadly sarin and VX nerve agents, according to an article at Kentucky.com.
The Munitions Demilitarization Building (MDB), where chemical weapons will be disassembled and where the explosives and chemical agent will be removed and neutralized, will be equipped with a “cascading ventilation system." Fresh air will be drawn into the building during plant operations and returned to the atmosphere after it has passed through a series of carbon filters, according to the article. A monitoring system will ensure the air released back into the environment is free of agent. Preparation has also begun at a site south of the plant where mustard agent rounds will be exploded into a steel detonation chamber.