1. Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot
Plant Completes Processing Building
DATE: January 25, 2012 CONTACT: Sandy Romero
FOR MORE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 719-289-1888
INFORMATION
CONTACT: Tom Schultz
Pueblo Chemical
719-549-4959
Stockpile
Outreach Office PUEBLO CHEMICAL DEPOT, Colo. – With the completion of construction on the Enhanced
104 West B Street
Pueblo, CO 81003 Reconfiguration Building (ERB), one of two main processing buildings at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-
(719) 546-0400 Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP), a milestone for the chemical weapons destruction project has been
PuebloOutreach@iem.com
reached.
Pueblo Chemical Agent-
Destruction Pilot Plant “This is significant because our workers have been focusing their efforts on this building for several
Public Affairs
(719) 549-4959
years,” said Doug Omichinski, project manager for the Bechtel Pueblo Team, the company
responsible for building PCAPP. “This takes us one step closer to completing construction for the
U.S. Army PCAPP facility.”
Pueblo Chemical Depot
Public Affairs Office
(719) 549-4135 At 35,610 square feet, the ERB is unique in that its Explosion Containment Rooms had to be built
usarmy.pueblo.usamc.mbx before the exterior building. The rooms were built of 4-foot thick concrete floors and 2-foot concrete
.pcd-pao@mail.mil
walls designed to withstand an explosion should a munition accidentally discharge during
disassembly. Each of the three Explosion Containment Rooms will house a Projectile Mortar
Disassembly system. These robotic systems will handle each munition individually to remove their
energetics and boosters before continuing down the Automated Guided Vehicle corridor for further
processing.
In recent weeks, all of the interior equipment, including conveyor systems, blast gate doors,
actuators, a pneumatic cylinder to move the blast gate doors up and down, and video monitors have
been set or installed in the ERB. Installation of this equipment enabled the building to be completed.
Our focus now is the rest of the buildings on site, including the other main processing building, the
Agent Processing Building, the Control and Support Building and the Biotreatment Area. “Our
expectation is that this site will be mechanically complete by March 31,” added Omichinski.
“I’m extremely pleased with the progress being made on the project,” said PCAPP Site Project
Manager Bruce Huenefeld. “It’s a huge effort, and the fact that the ERB has been completed means
we’re one step closer to the next phase of the project—systemization.”
The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant is being designed, built, tested, operated and
closed under a contract awarded in 2002 to the Bechtel Pueblo Team. The project is overseen by
Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, which is responsible directly to the Department of
Defense for the safe and environmentally sound destruction of the chemical stockpiles at both Pueblo
and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky.
-30-
NR_PCAPP ERB Complete
OPSEC Completed: 25 January 2012