The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant reported 85,822 munitions destroyed in less than six months, from June 13 to Dec. 5.

“This represents a 100 percent increase in destruction of chemical munitions in half the time,” said Greg Mohrman, site project manager, PCAPP.

The steady state of stockpile destruction progress is attributed to work done to improve equipment and operating procedures.

“As a result of the improvements, the plant is operating as we expected,” said Kim Jackson, plant manager, PCAPP. “In this short period of time, we’ve destroyed more munitions than the period between when operations first began up to the pause in operations.”

The demilitarization plant began operations on Sept. 7, 2016, and in its first 11 months destroyed 42,897 munitions. But issues forced staff to pause work and re-examine ways to complete the mission of destroying the chemical weapons stockpile. The plant resumed operations on June 13.