Edgewood Team Earns International Praise for Destroying Syria's Chemical Weapons

A team of Edgewood-based Department of Defense employees has received international recognition for destroying Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons, officials announced Friday.

Personnel from Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense recently completed a mission sanctioned by the UN that was the first of its kind—demilitarizing chemical weapons at sea.

They received the “Innovator of the Year” award from the United Kingdom’s chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense industry special interest group (CBRN-UK). It was the first time CBRN-UK had opened the award to people outside the country, according to a statement the Joint Program released Friday.

Related: Edgewood Team to Help Destroy Chemical Weapons from Syria

The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center worked for months to develop a prototype that would allow for destruction of chemical weapons in a contained environment in response to international need. After an August 2013 sarin gas attack killed 1,400 civilians in Syria, the U.S. threatened a strike and subsequently, Syria agreed to release its stockpile of chemical weapons, The Washington Post reported.

However, no nation wanted the weapons destroyed on its own soil, according to a statement from the Joint Program. So Edgewood’s experts adapted their prototype to work at sea. Previously, chemical weapons had only been neutralized on land at military sites.

Using a special hydrolysis system, a team including 40 civilians from Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and Joint Program for Chemical and Biological Defense neutralized 600 tons of deadly chemicals aboard the Cape Ray this summer. People back home at Aberdeen Proving Ground from both the Joint Program and Edgewood Chemical Biological Center provided support, according to a statement.

“You’re on a ship, working with chemicals in a way that they’ve never been worked with before,” said Joint Program Director of Product Development Lloyd Pusey, who oversaw chemical destruction operations aboard Cape Ray. “...the day-to-day job of trying to work through it was definitely challenging, [but] the processing went remarkably well.”

In all, it took 42 days to neutralize the chemicals, the Daily Press reported.

The chemical weapons included 19 tons of “ready-to-use” chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard and 581 tons of an element used to make sarin, according to Chemistry World, which reported the resulting chemical waste was dropped off in France and Germany.

“This was an international mission, and we worked with the UK and many other countries in order to make this happen,” said Tim Blades, a director at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center who was commander of the chemical operations team. Blades noted the UK helped with some specific chemicals in the Syrian stockpile.

“...we’ve enjoyed a very close relationship with the UK in this whole endeavor, and it’s very much an honor to be considered as a top innovator by them,” Blades said.

An Italian tugboat pulled the Cape Ray to the dock where she would receive chemical agents, according to the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. Photo Credit: U.S. Navy Seaman Desmond Parks/Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.

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