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What a difference a year makes at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant.
Throughout 2013, work shifted from outside structural construction to interior finish
work. Prominent visitors stopped by to view the progress, and big decisions were made.
Let's take a look at our accomplishments. In January, the Munitions Demilitarization
Building Filter Bank Clean-Air Exhaust Stacks arrived at the site. Air cleaned through the
facility's cascading ventilation system and carbon filter banks will pass through these
stacks once in place. In April, project millwrights began installing the reverse-assembly equipment,
which will access and drain chemical agent from the munitions. This summer marked the
arrival of supercritical water oxidation equipment, which will treat the waste water, known as
hydrolsate, from the chemical munitions destruction process. Throughout the year, U.S. Representative
Andy Barr, ambassadors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, U.S.
Senator Mitch McConnell, and a host of other groups, toured the site to get a first-hand
look at construction progress. After an open comment period, and several informative meetings,
the year wrapped up with the selection of the Static Detonation Chamber to destroy mustard
munitions in the Blue Grass stockpile. With 75 percent construction complete, and new
systems being turned over for systemization all the time, the Blue Grass project is setting
itself up for a successful 2014.