NECD
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During the 1960s, the Newport Chemical Depot (NECD) in Indiana produced the nerve agent VX until a unilateral decree halted American (but not Soviet) production and transportation of all chemical weapons. In the aftermath of 9/11, the US Department of Defense re-evaluated their chemical weapons disposal program, looking at where they might accelerate destruction of the USA’s stockpile in order to remove potential targets.

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency has a number of storage and disposal sites, each of which has its own prime contractor. Prime contractors hold the design, build, operation and closure portions of the contract, while subcontractors to the prime contractors vary by site. This post covers the still-ongoing work at Newport, Indiana. The following is a list of the prime contractors at each CMA disposal site:

• Aberdeen, MD: Bechtel;
• Anniston, AL: Washington Group Int’l;
• Blue Grass, KY: Bechtel-Parsons;
• Newport, IN: Parsons;
• Pine Bluff, AR: Washington Group Int’l;
• Pueblo, CO: Bechtel;
• Tooele, UT: EG&G Incorporated; and
• Umatilla, OR: Washington Group Int’l.

Firms that provide support under the prime contractors include Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), DuPont and Southwest Research Institute.

How It Works

Parsons profile covering the site and the scale of the project had this to say:

“In 1999, the U.S. Army awarded Parsons the contract to design, build, and operate NECDF, a demilitarization facility that will destroy 4% of the nation’s original stockpile of chemical agent… Parsons successfully launched a demonstration of safe operations in mid-2004, which led to the issuance of a Notice of Operational Readiness on September 24, 2004. Operations of this one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art neutralization facility began in May 2005.

Handle me with care

NECDF is the first site to destroy agent VX safely using caustic neutralization technology. Workers first drain the nerve agent from steel storage containers using three special glovebox systems fabricated at the Parsons Pasco Fabrication Facility in the state of Washington. The nerve agent is pumped out of storage containers into holding tanks, and the agent is then fed into steel neutralization vessels (reactors) where it is neutralized with hot sodium hydroxide and water, forming a caustic wastewater byproduct. The caustic wastewater, also called hydrolysate, is tested at an onsite laboratory to ensure that it contains no detectable agent. The hydrolysate byproduct is then transferred into temporary intermodal storage containers, awaiting shipment to a commercial treatment, storage, and disposal facility. The empty steel containers go through a final decontamination step, using another Parsons-designed process, before being tested to confirm there is no detectable agent present. The steel containers are then stored onsite until they are transferred to a commercial steel recycling center.”

Contracts & Events

Oct 23/07: Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group in Pasadena, CA received a $7.1 million increment as part of a $1.127 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued chemical agent neutralization operations at the Newport Chemical Depot. Work will be performed in Newport, IN and is expected to be complete by May 31, 2009. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (DAAA09-99-C-0016).

May 14/07: Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group in Pasadena, CA received a $69.7 million modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued chemical agent neutralization operations leading to the closure of the Newport chemical agent disposal facility.

Work will be performed in Newport, IN and is expected to be complete by May 31, 2009. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (DAAA09-99-C-0016).

Sept 6/06: Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group in Pasadena, CA received a $154.3 million increment as part of a $1.04 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued chemical agency neutralization operations leading to the closure of the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, IN. Work is expected to be complete by May 31, 2009. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (DAAA09-99-C-0016).

Jan 12/06: Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group, in Pasadena, CA received, a $197 million modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued chemical agent neutralization operations. Work will be performed in Newport, IN and is expected to be complete by May 31, 2009. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (DAAA09-99-C-0016).

May 6/05: Parsons, the systems contractor at the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (NECDF), announced today that the first steel containers of liquid nerve agent VX were safely transported, drained, and pumped to agent holding tanks. The agent was slowly fed into a reactor, then thoroughly mixed with heated sodium hydroxide and water until it was completely destroyed.

Feb 19/99: Parsons Infrastructure in Pasadena, CA was won an $11,506,030 increment as part of a $295.5 million cost-plus-award-fee contract for the design, construction, operation, and closure of the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. Work will be performed at the Newport Chemical Depot in Newport, IN and is expected to be complete by Dec. 16, 2005. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (DAAA09-99-C-0016).