NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on plan to burn bunkers of "clean-burning igniter" at Camp Minden (all times local):
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3:30 p.m.
The chairman of the chemistry and physics department at LSU-Shreveport says burning entire bunkers of the compound that exploded last month at Camp Minden appears to be the best available alternative.
Brian Salvatore (SAL-vuh-tohr) was among northwest Louisiana officials and residents who heard about the plan Wednesday from state and federal officials.
He says it's unfortunate that the "clean-burning igniter" — a fast-burning compound also called nitrocellulose — has become so unstable.
A bunker of the compound exploded early Sept. 29 at the camp, where a company went bankrupt and abandoned about 160 tons of igniter and 7,800 tons of M6 in 2013.
State environmental secretary Chuck Brown says military experts report that it has become so unstable that the rest of it should be burned in place this month.
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2:30 p.m.
Louisiana's environmental secretary says military experts report that material which exploded last month at Camp Minden is so unstable that the rest of it should be burned in place this month.
Environmental Quality Secretary Chuck Brown says three bunkers at Camp Minden hold nearly 100 tons of "clean-burning igniter," the compound used to touch off M6 propellant in artillery shells.
A bunker of igniter exploded early Sept. 29 at the camp, where a company went bankrupt in 2013 and abandoned about 160 tons of igniter and 7,800 tons of M6.
Brown says robots would open the bunker doors to give the fire a way out, making it more like a rocket flame than an explosion.
He says proposed dates are Monday, a week from Saturday, and Oct. 29.