The Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, or PEO ACWA, is responsible for the safe and environmentally compliant destruction of the remaining U.S. chemical weapons stockpile stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
Learn more about the history of PEO ACWA.
Chemical Weapons Stockpile Destruction in
Colorado
The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or PCAPP, was designed to destroy 2,613 U.S. tons of the blister agent mustard stored in artillery projectiles and mortar rounds at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado. The pilot plant is using neutralization followed by biotreatment or an explosive destruction technology to safely destroy the munitions.
PCAPP began agent destruction operations on Sept. 7, 2016. Operations will be completed by Dec. 31, 2023.
Explosive Destruction Technology at PCAPP
Explosive destruction technologies were selected to augment the Pueblo plant to destroy a number of problematic munitions that could not be easily destroyed by the main plant’s automated equipment. The Explosive Destruction System was used during two campaigns from March 2015 to December 2018 and eliminated 951 items resulting in 3.82 U.S. tons of mustard agent being reported as destroyed to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. In 2019, assembly of three Static Detonation Chamber units began at the Pueblo plant to destroy problematic mustard agent-filled munitions from the stockpile in Colorado.
Chemical Weapons Stockpile Destruction in
Kentucky
The Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, or BGCAPP, is safely destroying 523 U.S. tons of the nerve agents VX and GB (sarin) and blister agent mustard stored in rockets and projectiles at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. The pilot plant is using neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation or an explosive destruction technology to safely destroy the munitions.
BGCPP began agent destruction operations on June 7, 2019. Operations will be completed by Dec. 31, 2023.
Explosive Destruction Technology at BGCAPP
Static Detonation Chamber technology was selected to destroy all mustard agent projectiles, as well as two 3-gallon Department of Transportation bottles containing mustard agent. Static Detonation Chamber units will also process drained rocket warheads and overpacked rockets from the nerve agent stockpile to augment main plant destruction in Kentucky.
United States Chemical Demilitarization Map
