An assortment of deadly nerve gas, including that which killed Tokyo commuters Monday, can be found at the Tooele Army Depot, which stores 42 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons.
The exact amount of nerve gas stored at TAD is classified, but one estimate based on congressional testimony last year puts the amount at nearly 17,000 tons.Among the deadly agents stored at TAD is sarin, also known as GB, which terrorists planted on a Tokyo subway Monday morning. At least six people died in the attack and more than 3,200 were sickened.
TAD has nearly 29,000 M55 rockets containing GB and another 4,000 rockets containing VX, an even more deadly nerve agent. Exposure to one droplet of either substance is enough to kill an adult human.
But Army critics scrutinizing TAD's efforts to destroy the nerve gas by incineration are not too concerned about theft at the facility.
"Overall, security is more than adequate at both installations," said Steve Erickson, of Down-winders, a military watchdog group. "That's not to say we shouldn't pay attention to improving security wherever possible . . . It's not impossible that small quantities of agent could be removed from those facilities. But it's highly unlikely."
A General Accounting Office study in 1991 criticized the Army for lack of security at several bases storing chemical and biological weapons. But the problems were mainly related to terroristic attacks than theft.
"The potential for a successful terrorist action appears to be greater if the intent is to damage or destroy the chemicals rather than to steal or divert them," the GAO report said.
TAD spokesman Jeff Lindblad said there have been no theft attempts in the history of the facility, mainly because of the high level of security.
"I can't get into specifics for obvious reasons, but we have multiple layers of security," including several razor-topped fences, intrusion detection systems, armed guards and monitoring systems, Lindblad said.
In addition, "all of our agents are in some type of container, be it a munition or a one-ton container. So it would be hard for you to walk out of here with an M55 under your arm."
Of greater concern to the public, Erickson said, should be the fact that nerve agents can be manufactured in small quantities in clandestine laboratories.
"So if you were a terrorist and wanted to do something as hideous as what happened in Japan, it would be easier to make (nerve gas) than steal it," he said.