30 gallons of toxins spills in Newport, Ind.

NEWPORT, Ind. - About 30 gallons of a liquid containing VX spilled during a process to destroy the deadly nerve agent, but it was safely contained in a sealed area, the Army said Saturday.\nWorkers in protective gear were using a mixture of sodium hydroxide and water Saturday to clean up any surface that the liquid touched at the Newport Chemical Agent Destruction Facility in western Indiana.\n"It is being done very cautiously and deliberately," said spokeswoman Terry Arthur, adding that nobody was injured.\nWorkers would try to determine what caused the valve to leak Friday night and how to fix it, Arthur said.\n"No agent was released outside the containment area and there was no danger to workers or to the community," the news release said.\nThe liquid drained into a pit in the sealed concrete floor of the reactor area, named the Toxic Cubicle, the Army said. It then went into a tank designed to hold spent decontamination liquid.\nVX is so deadly that just one drop is enough to kill a person.