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Before the processing of live munitions begins at the Pueblo
Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or PCAPP, the project
personnel there will first train using mock, inert munitions
called ATE. ATE stands for ACWA Test Equipment, and ACWA is an
acronym for the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program,
which is the federal agency charged with destroying chemical
weapons stored in Pueblo, Colorado, and in Richmond, Kentucky.
In May and June of 2011, thousands of these ATE munitions were
shipped from the Deseret Chemical Depot in Utah, to the U.S.
Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado.
Practice makes perfect. It's an old adage, but the wisdom still
applies. We see the concept all around us everyday. Specialists
from surgeons to mechanics, from professional golfers to
emergency responders, all conduct intensive practice and training
before applying their skills on the job. In fact, any time a
risky job needs to be done, a lot of planning, preparation,
training and practice takes place before the actual job begins.
Before that first shipment of ATE munitions ever arrived in
Colorado, lots of planning had to be done.
The ACWA test equipment is important because it allows us to test
equipment that's going to be installed within the plant ahead of
using actual munitions as part of that testing. So the ACWA test
equipment is totally inert, but it represents the actual
munitions that we'll see in that plant that we get from the
stockpile. So it's a training aid, it's an aid in development of
test hardware, and it allows us to systemize the plant as well
without bringing in chemical munitions or chemicals into the
plant until the plant is ready to operate.
We have standard pallette configurations by truckload to make
sure that all the munitions fit on each truckload. So, for
instance, today's three trucks were all dedicated for 4.2 inch
mortars with and without baffles, and 72 palettes fit on each
truckload.
We needed to have the simulated equipment provided to us so that
we could prove that our first-of-a kind equipment was going to
function as specified. What will happen with the ACWA test
equipment during the systemization phase is we'll run it through
the plant and simulate live rounds actually coming out of G-Block
at the chemical depot. And the reason we want to do that is we
want to make sure that all of this equipment integrated as a
complete system is going to function properly.
The primary benefit of using ACWA test equipment is that we can
debug the entire system without the risk of any kind of safety
hazard to any of our workers. Primary benefit is safety. We need
to test on practice rounds before we put real chemical stockpile
through the system.
And that's what we're trying to show doing pressurized round
testing of the cavity axle machine; that there will be no release
of agent outside of the machine.
The logistics for storing these rounds has been over a two-year
project. To start with what we did was we had the inital meetings
and most of the logistics was first by telephone. We had a lot of
telephone conversations. What the individual sites' needs were
going to be and what we could provide and what we couldn't
provide. We've been working very closely with the ACWA folks back
in Maryland, we've been working closely with the folks from
Deseret Chemical Depot where these rounds are coming from, and
then also the contractors who have been hired to do the work
itself, do the job itself, and oversight of the mission. There's
all the people that have to coordinate who's actually doing the
shipment, there's many, many different layers of this operation
that are above and beyond what we're doing. We're just a small
portion of it. There was a lot of work that has to be done to
actually get the rounds here and get them loaded and who's doing
that. Coordination with the state of Utah, coordination with the
state of Colorado to let them know what's going on so that we
make sure that we keep everybody informed, because the last thing
we want is for someone to think that we're transporting chemical
rounds, we're not. These rounds are shells, there's no explosives
in them, no water, nothing in them - and they're purely the
casings so that the machines can be calibrated to the right
dimensions so they work properly. Safety is job number one, and
it's our most important mission that we've got.
Ms. Wachutka pretty much said it all: worker safety,
environmental protection, precision planning and training, all in
an effort to get it right. Note that she said it took almost two
years of planning just to get the ATE munitions to Pueblo. Now
consider it will take almost twice that long just to systemize
the PCAPP facility and to train the personnel. Why so long?
Because practice makes perfect.