ROTTING ROCKETS

By Mark Thompson/Washington

BETWEEN 1961 AND 1966, COLORADO'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN Arsenal cranked out 300,000 M-55 rockets, which are now stockpiled at five of the nation's chemical-weapons storage sites. Too late, the Army discovered that the design of the weapon has a potentially fatal flaw: sarin, the deadly poison that was packed into the nose cone, tends to corrode the aluminum casing. And sarin leaking into the rear chamber accelerates the decay of the stabilizing agent that prevents the rocket fuel from "auto-igniting.'' Because there is no way to safely dismantle the rocket, the deadly nerve agent and the volatile fuel have been locked in a slowly rotting shell for more than 30 years.

Military experts at first estimated that the M-55s were safe until 1986, but a '93 Army report suggests the danger zone could be reached in 1997. Several years ago, the Army simulated a single auto-ignition using real rockets filled with fake sarin. The weapons close to the smoldering rocket exploded, blowing the heavy door off the igloo and allowing rockets to fly out, spewing fake sarin into the air. Inside the igloo, rockets kept detonating with dull thuds. A typical igloo contains 4,000 M-55s, each with a seven-mile range and 20 tons of sarin. (A pinpoint dose is enough to kill a 100-lb. person.)

The Army fears that 10,000 M-55s may be leaking internally right now. The 1,500 rockets with external leaks have been put into strong steel tubes. And when those containers have sprung leaks, the Army has put them into even bigger containers. This process, an Army report dryly notes, "cannot continue indefinitely." The Army recently launched a $4.5 million study to nail down a more precise deadline for the rockets' safe storage. It hopes to have an answer later this year.

--By Mark Thompson/Washington