Pueblo Chemical Depot
Encyclopedia
The Pueblo Chemical Depot is a chemical weapons storage site located in Pueblo County
, Colorado
, United States
.
The depot houses 2,611 tons
(2,369 metric tons) of mustard agent in approximately 780,000 munitions, equivalent to about seven percent of the original chemical material stockpile of the United States. The current course of action for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant
, included in the President's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request, will allow for acceleration of the project schedule. After systemization and pilot testing of the facility, full-scale destruction operations are expected to begin in 2014 and to be complete by 2017. The plant will operate until all the chemical weapons have been destroyed. Closure activities (shut-down, dismantling, and restoration of site) are slated to be wrapped up by 2020. The plant will use neutralization with a hot caustic solution followed by bacterial biotreatment to destroy mustard agent.
This is far outside the deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention
(April 2012).
Pueblo County, Colorado
Pueblo County is the tenth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county was named for the historic city of Pueblo which took its name from the Spanish language word meaning "town" or "village". The United States Census Bureau estimates that the...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The depot houses 2,611 tons
Short ton
The short ton is a unit of mass equal to . In the United States it is often called simply ton without distinguishing it from the metric ton or the long ton ; rather, the other two are specifically noted. There are, however, some U.S...
(2,369 metric tons) of mustard agent in approximately 780,000 munitions, equivalent to about seven percent of the original chemical material stockpile of the United States. The current course of action for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant
Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant
The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant is a chemical weapons destruction facility under construction. The plant is being built to destroy the chemical weapons stockpile at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, in southeastern Colorado. The depot contains munitions containing 2,611 tons of mustard...
, included in the President's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request, will allow for acceleration of the project schedule. After systemization and pilot testing of the facility, full-scale destruction operations are expected to begin in 2014 and to be complete by 2017. The plant will operate until all the chemical weapons have been destroyed. Closure activities (shut-down, dismantling, and restoration of site) are slated to be wrapped up by 2020. The plant will use neutralization with a hot caustic solution followed by bacterial biotreatment to destroy mustard agent.
This is far outside the deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention
Chemical Weapons Convention
The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction...
(April 2012).