But critics say incinerating those arms presents great risks — accidents at the plant have released nerve agent — and other communities near similar stockpiles nationwide are fighting incinerators there. The incinerator's existence raises the possibility that more arms could be transported to Utah for destruction, although that is now banned by law.

One accident at the depot in 1998 allowed unburned nerve agent to escape the smokestack as workers figured alarms must be in error. The incident shut down the plant for months and led to congressional hearings.

Deseret and Dugway are also home to some "non-stockpile" chemical arms — a fancy name for old weapons that were dug up at long-forgotten storage sites, or arms captured from foreign countries.

Pettebone said Deseret has 297 such arms stored there — 296 rocket warheads plus one 1-ton container. Dugway spokeswoman Melanie Moore said her base has 40 such arms in storage — all but one of which were recovered on Dugway grounds. The other was discovered at Denver's Rocky Mountain arsenal and sent to Utah.

Congress has not yet decided how to dispose of such "non-stockpile" weapons.

Continuing tests

Not all chemical testing ended with the Cold War. Some continues today.

Dugway Proving Ground is continuing experiments with poisonous chemicals inside the Melvin Bushnell Materiel Test Facility, a $30 million structure built in the 1990s. The research involves detection systems to warn when chemical attacks are launched and to improve protective clothing used by the military, police and emergency response teams.

The building's test chamber measures 50 feet by 50 feet by 30 feet, so huge that technicians can place aircraft and tanks inside to check susceptibility to chemical warfare agents. The building standards used for the duct work that carries poison gas to and from the chamber allows no detectable leakage.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pushed — but has been unsuccessful so far — to construct a mock city at Dugway, complete with buildings, subway systems and homes where the military and police could practice responding to chemical and germ attacks.

Dugway commander Fisher said earlier this year that Dugway and Utah attract such testing now for many of the same reasons they did during the Cold War.

"The installation's land mass, remoteness, test facilities and highly professional work force (make) our customers recognize that Dugway is the ideal location for testing," he said.

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