With the transport of the first container of mustard gas into an airtight containment building, the destruction of the largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the U.S. had begun on Wednesday. The crews in the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado plan on opening and beginning the neutralizing process later today.

The destruction process is slated to take approximately four years. The facility has about 780.000 shells containing about 2,600 tons of the mustard agent.

First to be destroyed will be damaged munitions and metal containers of the chemical. They will be placed in a sealed containment building to be destroyed first with explosives then neutralized with chemicals.

The remainder of the chemical munitions will be neutralized in an automated $4.5 billion plant built at the depot for that purpose.

Through the years, the U.S. would acquire approximately 30.600 tons of mustard and nerve agents. (0% of that original stockpile has already been disposed of.

  colorado, depot, destruction, munitions, mustard gas, nerve agents, stockpile