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Testing technologies, expanding the workforce, recognizing project milestones.
At the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or PCAPP, 2013 was a year of continued progress.
A year after construction was complete, workers have been busy testing hundreds of systems
and sub-systems throughout the plant, a process known as systemization. And with systemization
activities more than half-way complete, PCAPP is one step closer to the start of agent destruction operations.
Let's take a closer look at several milestones during the past year.
First, in January, workers successfully energized PCAPP's boilers, the first of seventeen major systems
to become operational at the plant. In February, PCAPP opened its 25,000 square foot training
facility to the public in the Pueblo Memorial Airport Industrial Park. The facility serves
as a hub for more than a hundred employee training courses, from mask fitting to robotic
equipment operations. A major announcement in mid-April, the Explosive Destruction System
would be used to augment PCAPP with operation scheduled to start in 2014. EDS will destroy
about 1,300 problematic munitions that cannot be easily processed through the plant.
In April, workers started using ACWA test equipment to support systemization activities. These
simulated munitions look and weigh like real munitions, but they don't contain chemical
agent or energetics. And with ACWA test equipment in place, in April the systemization team
began testing a major processing system-- the Projectile Mortar Disassembly, or PMD.
The PMD will remove energetics from chemical munitions inside an explosion containment room which
has 24-inch thick concrete walls for added protection.
Automated Guided Vehicles will transport the munitions to the next processing building. The AGVs, which arrived in June,
use laser sensors to safely travel down a 450-foot long corridor. In November, the PCAPP
team held its second of two job symposiums at the Pueblo Convention Center, attracting
a total of nearly 600 job seekers. PCAPP's workforce has increased by more than a third
since January, with more than a thousand full-time employees.
And throughout every milestone, PCAPP's commitment to safety has remained constant. In 2013 the team accomplished more
than 3 million hours worked without a single lost-time accident or injury. Heading into
2014, PCAPP's mission stands:
"The safe and environmentally sound destruction of chemical munitions."