Workers discovered a deadly nerve agent vapor Monday morning in an on-site container at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, 22 miles south of Tooele.

Workers were performing a routine check of the air within the container when they detected the vapor.

"Nerve agents are designed to attack the nervous system - to stop a soldier in the field," said Susan Huff, public affairs officer for. The vapor of the discovered agent, GB (Sarin), can be fatal to an unprotected person. Huff said the workers were protected and nobody was in danger.

The large on-site container stores several 155mm steel projectiles. These projectiles contain six and a half pounds of chemical agent and are designed to be fired from a howitzer. Huff said there was no danger of anything detonating.

"Sometimes just the transport within the on-site container can cause a leak, but it is still within the container," Huff said.

"That's why they check the ambient air," she said. "It's monitored from the outside."

Once the vapor was discovered, workers wearing protective clothing prepared the projectiles for processing through the facility's filter farm. The filter farm cleanses the processed air into healthy air.

Copyright Brigham Young University 16 Jul 2001