Nervous About Nerve Gas

Chemical weapons are so horrendous that 40 nations are trying to work out a global ban on their possession. So why isn't everyone cheering a plan to destroy some of them now? The U.S. Army last week began moving 100,000 artillery shells loaded with nerve-gas chemicals out of NATO storage dumps in West Germany. They are to be incinerated on Johnston Island, a U.S. atoll 825 miles southwest of Honolulu. The idea has touched off protests across the Pacific.

The Army's intent is not at issue. It is trying to carry out a promise made by former President Ronald Reagan to remove the shells from German soil by 1992. President George Bush has set an even earlier deadline of this Sept. 30.

But American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, the Governor of Hawaii and environmental groups have all dumped on the plan. They contend that the trip is hazardous and that the new $240 million incinerator on Johnston Island may not be ready to handle the disposal task safely. Hawaii Democratic Governor John Waihee argues that the Johnston plant should first complete a 16-month test period. Other critics fear smokestack emissions will contaminate the ocean food chain.

The atoll was selected because there is no similar facility in the continental U.S. The Army claims that the incinerator's initial tests have been successful. The plant was designed to burn some 13,000 tons of obsolete chemical munitions and containers removed from Okinawa in 1971.

As for the long ocean journey, the Army maintains that it is safer than lengthy transport by trucks or trains. An Army study shows that a shipboard accident would spread a lethal nerve-gas cloud no farther than 52 miles, but that may be little comfort to the 1,200 residents of Johnston Island, which is only two miles long. The Army concedes that terrorists could try to sabotage the cargo, but it minimizes the threat. As a precaution, however, it will not disclose just when the two ships carrying the chemicals will set sail or give any hint of the course they will take.