May 15, 2010 - Greg Nielson pushed a joystick, and a video camera zoomed in on three men in moon suits and gas masks as they prepared to blow up a weapon of mass destruction less than five miles from the White House.
Later, the crew slid the rusting World War I artillery shell into a small steel vault and sealed the door. They detonated a shaped explosive charge to cut the projectile open, and pumped in reagent to neutralize its contents: liquid mustard, an infamous chemical warfare agent.
The process is “as safe as sliced bread,” said Nielson, the operation leader, at a control panel in a nearby trailer. “Maybe safer.”
The destruction of five poison-filled shells and 20 other suspect items ended in early May. But the saga of America’s most unusual hazardous waste site is far from over.
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