Select visitors were invited to tour the Radford Army Ammunition Plant Thursday evening. Here visitors watch a movie about the plant’s history.
Normally off limits to the public, the Radford Army Ammunition Plant hosted about 40 visitors, curious and concerned citizens and media last week in a recent push toward transparency and community outreach by the 70-year old military plant that manufactures the nation’s nitrocellulose, an explosive used to propel missiles.
Visitors, many plant neighbors, have been worried about the environmental affects the RAAP may be having on air and water and human and animal health as the result of open burning of waste and nitrogen release to the river.
The multi-step process of making nitrocellulose involves dissolving tons of wood fluff with acid, then rolling it into hair-thin mats and slicing the explosive into 3-foot long missile-propelling tubes.
Photography was prohibited, but the WWII-era base, weathered, but tidy, looks like a small mining town: a jumble of rust-streaked tanks, silos, water towers, phone lines, small brick and wooden houses, a gym and a watchtower wound through by steam pipes raised on rusty girders.
Among the grey and tan, a bright yellow fixed-boom crane is building the new nitrocellulose production facility that will combine much of the scattered buildings under one enormous roof by 2025.
Guests were guided from the gate to the gym by armed security and welcomed by BAE Systems representative and military personnel.
Lt. Col. James Scott, plant commander greeted the guests with bottled water and light banter, but pointed out that the flag at the gate flew at half-staff to remember the victims of a recent accident that killed one local man and injured two more.
“This world class propellant keeps our nation free and it don’t happen by chance. It’s dangerous work, and we make it as safe as possible,” he said, a message that was echoed throughout the visit.
His presentation listed the plant’s environmental stewardship successes and on-going efforts.
The community had asked specifically for ambient air monitoring especially concerned about very small particles that lodge in lungs.
“Ambient air monitoring is in progress,” Scott said.
Lead going to the open burning ground has been reduced by 65 percent diverting it to the closed explosive waste incinerator.
The plant plan is to reduce the amount of waste being burned by 50 percent by 2023.
There has been no reduction in the amount of nitrates released into the New River. Nitrates cause algal blooms, reducing oxygen and killing aquatic wildlife.
A dramatic video of tanks and planes shooting missiles demonstrating the role of nitrocellulose explosives and the Radford arsenal in American wars was shown to visitors.
Following the video, a 30-minute bus tour traveled from the buildings crowded on the edge of the natural bowl, sloping down to the river where the work is more dangerous. The buildings are scattered, and built to withstand blasts.
Sixty-seven miles of road, and “no straight lines,” said Scott at the head of the bus. Visitors were asked to hold their questions until after the trip.
Many on the bus were especially interested in the controversial open burning ground beside the river.
Returning to the gym, visitors spoke to personnel with poster boards explaining the propellant-making process and other roles of the plant.
Although a question and answer period had been planned, the public relations officer chose not to hold it.
Alan Moore, a Blacksburg resident who has paid attention to the facility for 30 years was not displeased with the tour, but was disappointed by omitting the public-forum question and answer period.
“We ran out of time for questions and answers, but it’s a trend we’re seeing with commander Scott of more transparency and responding to some community needs. The monitoring is an example of something we’ve asked for years,” he said.
The meeting was suggested by a citizen at quarterly meeting at the Christiansburg library last autumn.
The plant invited about 100 people who had attended community meetings and expressed an interest in an on-site visit.
Invitations to on-plant visits are infrequent, but seem to be in keeping with the current commander’s emphasis on community outreach online and in person, but a new commanders come to the plant every two years, with institutional knowledge being maintained by other personnel.
