Heavy, stainless-steel containers used to safely transport chemical weapons from storage to destruction operations at the Blue Grass Army Depot are now being turned into scrap.
“The Enhanced On-site Containers were a workhorse for operations,” said Bill Nieminen, deputy plant manager, Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or BGCAPP. “They transported nearly 3,000 loads of munitions from 2019 until 2023, when the last chemical weapon was destroyed.”
Designed to withstand almost any kind of potential accident and weighing 19,000 pounds, EONCs are made of layers of thick stainless steel with a blanket of ceramic fiber and a layer of rigid polyurethane foam in between.
The 53 containers, which are more than 20 years old, originally came to Kentucky from former chemical demilitarization facilities at Anniston, Alabama, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. With their transport mission now complete, the federal government dispositioned them for scrap recycling.
“We have done a lot of unique things here, but I would say this is probably the most unique,” said Jerry Joiner, the veteran owner of the Kentucky small business awarded the contract to scrap the equipment. “They are tough. When you get in there and cut one, you get a real respect for how hard they are to damage.”
Workers at the Winchester-based recycling center remove the door and outer layer of steel, peel away the fiberglass and foam, and then the final steel layers are cut into pieces.
