Bechtel/Parsons Joint Venture Selected for Multibillion Dollar Blue Grass Contract; Department of Defense Contract Will Eliminate Chemical Weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot.

Business Editors

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2003

Parsons announced the selection of Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass by the Defense Department's Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program to design, build, operate and close a plant to destroy the chemical weapons stockpile stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.

The Blue Grass program is a multi-phase project spanning a decade of work, with an estimated life-cycle cost of about $2 billion. Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass is a joint venture of Bechtel National, Inc.; Parsons; General Atomics; Washington Demilitarization Company; Battelle Memorial Institute; and General Physics.

Under the contract's first task order, a design-build plan will be developed for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant. Subsequent tasks will be awarded for design completion, construction, systemization (start-up testing), pilot testing, operation, and ultimately, closure. The plant will use neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation to destroy the Kentucky chemical weapons stockpile comprised of blister agent in projectiles and nerve agent in projectiles and rockets.

Since 1944, the Army has safely stored approximately two percent of the nation's original chemical weapons stockpile at Blue Grass. The Army conducted studies to evaluate potential impacts of the elimination of these weapons using incineration and non-incineration methods. The Department of Defense selected neutralization followed by supercritical water oxidation for use at Blue Grass based on technical and environmental studies and input from the community.

Parsons, with our teaming subcontractor General Atomics, developed the technology that will be used as the preferred disposal method, and will be supporting and developing the design process, as well as fabricating equipment for the neutralization bio-treatment process. Extensively trained and highly skilled workers and state-of-the-art robotic systems will ensure the safe destruction of the Blue Grass Army Depot's stockpile in this significant win.

"The Blue Grass Army Depot is the last chemical demilitarization facility to be awarded by the Department of Defense. Parsons is very pleased to continue our role in disposing of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons," states John A. Scott, President of the Infrastructure and Technology Group at Parsons.

Parsons, a leader in many diversified markets, such as facilities, industrial processes, communications, infrastructure, transportation, water, advanced technology, environmental and planning, provides technical and management solutions to private industrial customers worldwide as well as federal, regional and local government agencies. For more about Parsons, please visit us at www.parsons.com.