The Newport Chemical Depot, previously known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Ammunition Plant, was a <!--STATEMENT 7.,098" NOT SOURCED; AREA USED MUST APPEAR IN THE ARTICLE, WITH A CITATION.--> bulk chemical storage and destruction facility that was operated by the United States Army. It is located near Newport, in west central Indiana, thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. The site was used as a production site for the solid explosives trinitrotoluene and RDX, as well as for heavy water. It also served as the production site for all of the U.S. military's nerve agent VX, when it was in use.<!--NO STATEMENT THAT ALL WAS PRODUCED HERE, IN MAIN BODY.--> All VX nerve agent at the site was neutralized by August 8, 2008. It was the third of the Army's nine chemical depots to completely destroy its stockpile.
History
Wabash River Ordnance Works
Newport was founded during World War II to produce the military high explosive RDX. The site is , located in west central Indiana, near the Wabash River, two miles south of Newport, Indiana, and thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. It was built during 1942–1943 by DuPont, the original operating contractor of the site, and was originally known as the Wabash River Ordnance Works.
Given the immediate need for RDX, the plant was designed to employ the older Woolwich method for manufacturing the explosive. As a result, the plant manufactured lower amounts of RDX compared to the Holston Ordnance Works, which used the more updated Bachmann process.
The plant was mothballed in 1946, but its RDX production was reactivated in 1951 for the Korean War. Production of RDX was suspended again in 1957.
Heavy water plant
In 1943–1946, the Newport Army Ammunition Plant added a heavy water plant as an element of the Manhattan Project's P-9 Project for construction of nuclear weapons. Heavy water production was suspended in 1946 when the plant was mothballed, but resumed in 1952 to produce heavy water for the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Heavy water production ended in 1957. In 1964, the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Chemical Plant were effectively combined and renamed the Newport Army Ammunition Plant. having employed 1,000 workers at its peak. The agent was neutralized in steel reactors by thoroughly mixing it with heated sodium hydroxide and water. Control room operators directed and monitored the entire process remotely, using a state-of-the-art control system. Once agent neutralization was verified at the on-site laboratory, the caustic wastewater was placed into on-site intermodal storage containers awaiting transport for final treatment to Veolia Environmental Services in Port Arthur, Texas. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons certified that the stockpile was 100 percent destroyed in September 2009.
Incidents
A few incidents have occurred during the destruction process, including a 30-gallon spill of VX during processing on June 10, 2005. Further incidents involved spills of the hydrolysate end product. None of these incidents resulted in any injuries.
Base closure and redevelopment
A 2005 BRAC commission report recommended the depot's closure and the Army held a Deactivation Ceremony in June 2010, signifying that all activities required for closure of the NECD had been successfully completed. In preparation for closure, the Newport Chemical Depot Reuse Authority (NeCDRA) was created to complete a reuse master plan for the NECD. NeCDRA and its consultant team worked with the local community to create a plan and implementation strategy for the conversion of the depot to civilian use. NECD's closure led to the loss of over 675 jobs and rural Vermillion County's largest employer.
Timeline of VX production, storage, and destruction
<!--ALL ENTRIES THIS SECTION WERE MADE INTO COMPLETE SENTENCES, SINCE SOME WERE. ALL ENTRIES REQUIRE CITATIONS, SONCE MOST HAD.-->
thumb|right|The Newport Chemical Depot (NCD) deactivation ceremony, June 17, 2010.
{| class="wikitable"
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! Year !! Event
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| 1962-1968 || The period of VX production at the Newport Chemical Depot (NCD) is across this span of years.
|-
| 1969 || President Richard Nixon unilaterally decrees halt to production and transport of chemical weapons, leaving the final two batches of VX at the NCD.
|-
| 1999 || Parsons Infrastructure & Technology is awarded the contract for the disposal of VX at the NCD.
|-
| 2001 || 1st Battalion, 502d Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) arrives to secure the NCD shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The next month, the 1/148 Inf<!--INCOMPLETE UNIT DESIGNATION.--> of the Ohio Army National Guard relieved the 101st Airborne.
|-
| 2002-2003 || 1/194 Field Artillery of the Iowa Army National Guard<!--INCOMPLETE DESIGNATION OF UNIT.--> arrives to protect the depot.<!--TO AUGMENT OR TO REPLACE?-->
|-
| 2003-2004 || 2/150 Field Artillery of Indiana Army National Guard arrives to protect the depot
|-
| 2005 || On May 5, operations began for the neutralization/destruction of the VX at the depot.
|-
| 2010 || On June 17, the depot conducted a deactivation ceremony and announced that it would officially vacate the site on July 18, 2010.
|}
See also
- United States and weapons of mass destruction