First day of operations at NECDF

During the 1960s, the Newport Chemical Depot (NECD) in Indiana produced the chemical agent VX (a rapid-acting, lethal nerve agent) until a unilateral decree halted production and transportation of all chemical weapons. In 1999, the U.S. Army awarded Parsons the contract to design, build, and operate NECDF, a demilitarization facility that will destroy 4% of the nation’s original stockpile of chemical agent.

As a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the U.S. Army accelerated its schedule to destroy the chemical agent VX being stored at NECD. Parsons was asked to apply its expertise in modularized engineering and construction in order to redesign the facility so it could process the agent VX faster.While the facility was under construction, the process module and materials-handling assemblies were concurrently being fabricated and tested offsite. The process modules, contained in what is termed the reactor bay, were then transported to NECDF and installed in conjunction with final construction—thus saving considerable time.

Parsons successfully launched a demonstration of safe operations in mid-2004, which led to the issuance of a Notice of Operational Readiness on September 24, 2004. Operations of this one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art neutralization facility began in May 2005.

NECDF laboratory

NECDF is the first site to destroy agent VX safely using caustic neutralization technology. Workers first drain the nerve agent from steel storage containers using three special glovebox systems fabricated at the Parsons Pasco Fabrication Facility in the state of Washington. The nerve agent is pumped out of storage containers into holding tanks, and the agent is then fed into steel neutralization vessels (reactors) where it is neutralized with hot sodium hydroxide and water, forming a caustic wastewater byproduct. The caustic wastewater, also called hydrolysate, is tested at an onsite laboratory to ensure that it contains no detectable agent. The hydrolysate byproduct is then transferred into temporary intermodal storage containers, awaiting shipment to a commercial treatment, storage, and disposal facility. The empty steel containers go through a final decontamination step, using another Parsons-designed process, before being tested to confirm there is no detectable agent present. The steel containers are then stored onsite until they are transferred to a commercial steel recycling center.

Parsons has recently achieved two major milestones:

• More than 14% of the chemical agent stockpile has been
  destroyed safely.

• More than 3 million manhours have been worked without
  a lost time accident.

After Newport’s chemical agent stockpile is finally eliminated safely, Parsons and the Army will have rid our nation of a potential terrorist target by removing the risk posed from the continued storage of agent VX in the stockpile.

Delivery of ton container	Placement of intermodal storage container

Parsons’ long history in chemical demilitarization began with the process design of the first full-scale industrial disposal facility at the Johnson Atoll Chemical Disposal System (JACADS), which is 825 miles from Honolulu, HI. Parsons’ demilitarization efforts continued through the 19-year Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP), which just completed operations, by being instrumental in the design and development of chemical munitions disposal plants at seven other locations within the continental United States.

Parsons joins the Army in its history of safely destroying this chemical weapon left over from the cold war era.