By Anne Marie Pecha
Global Security Newswire

U.S. engineering contractor Parsons has started preliminary building activities at Shchuchye, the site of a planned destruction facility for many of Russia’s chemical weapons, a project administrator told Global Security Newswire last week (see GSN, March 20).

Engineers are hoping the project will be finished by 2006, said Madeleine Rongey, Parsons deputy project manager for the facility.  Workers are clearing trees, leveling the ground and building temporary roads at the southwest Siberian site in Russia’s Kurgan oblast, she said.

“The project has progressed very well and is currently in detail design,” Rongey said. 

The winter at the Shchuchye site is “long and severe,” Rongey said.  “Construction during the winter is a challenge, [but] Parsons has experience in managing construction projects in remote areas and similar climates.”

Through a contract from the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction program, the company is responsible for managing design and construction activities for the facility.  It is working with about a dozen Russian entities — such as the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology in Moscow — as well as some U.S. subcontractors, such as Science Applications International Corp. and Washington Group International.

The support companies provide detailed design, construction and operation services, Rongey said.

The complete facility will incorporate a unique two-step destruction process, developed by Russian and U.S. researchers, for destroying Russian VX nerve gas.  After separating toxic matter from the weapon hardware, engineers will first neutralize it by turning it into harmless salt.  They will then mix the product with a tar-like substance called bitumen, which can safely be used as landfill.

“Solid wastes are environmentally less hazardous,” Rongey said.

The total cost of the project will be nearly $890 million, according to Rongey.  Parsons’ contract covers $780 million, but U.S. lawmakers have frozen CTR funds for chemical weapon destruction until Russia can prove that it is serious about the endeavor (see GSN, Feb. 1).

“I only hope funding comes soon, because every day that passes is just one more day that the most deadly substances known to man will exist and have the chance to fall into the hands of bad, very bad people,” Rongey said.

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