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Bechtel led Project Moves Closer toward Destroying Surplus U.S. Chemical Weapons

  • 27 October 2015
    RESTON, Virginia
  • Americas, Chemical Weapons Disassembly & Destruction, Engineering, Procurement & Construction, Press Release, Project & Program Management

Construction Completed at Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Kentucky

Bechtel, with its partners and the U.S. Department of Defense, today marked the completion of construction of a key plant that will destroy the last remaining stockpile of the nation’s chemical weapons. The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Richmond, Kentucky, will now enter a multi-year testing phase where all systems are checked and simulated chemical weapons are taken apart and emptied.

Once running, the plant will use a new approach to destroy the nerve agents GB (Sarin) and VX. As an alternative to incineration, the plant will use chemicals to neutralize the agents, followed by supercritical water oxidation – where superheated water and high pressure are used to break down the hazardous chemicals into non-hazardous ingredients.

“This is such an important facility from a global safety and security perspective,” said Craig Albert, president of Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security & Environmental business unit. “This is an important achievement but there’s more work to do, and we look forward to the day when the plant starts actual operations.”

The plant will help safely eliminate the remaining 10 percent of the nation’s decades-old chemical weapons stockpile under the Chemical Weapons Convention, a 1997 treaty signed by 190 countries. Built under contract to the Department of Defense’s Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, the plant will destroy 523 tons of mustard and nerve agent in rockets and artillery shells stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot.

Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass is a joint venture of Bechtel National Inc. and Parsons Government Services Inc.
 
“As impressive as the facility itself is the success of our safety culture here at Blue Grass,” said Doug Omichinski, Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass project manager. “We have been able to instill and maintain a safety mentality throughout the entire construction process.”

To date, employees have completed 5,037,710 hours and 518 days without a lost time accident and a recordable injury rate 94 percent lower than construction industry average.

While the main plant continues systemization, construction of the Explosive Destruction Technology facility responsible for processing weapons containing mustard agent will carry on until early 2017.

Bechtel is leading the team completing a sister plant in Pueblo, Colorado that will destroy mustard agent. That plant is now approaching the end of its testing phase. The chemical weapons disassembly and destruction plants are two projects in Bechtel’s diverse government portfolio that includes site management and operations, environmental restoration, defense, space, energy, and global security.

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Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.  

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Manufacturing & Technology; Mining & Metals; and Nuclear, Security & Environmental markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

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