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Russia: Shchuchye Storage Facility Leaks, Official Says Russia’s chemical weapons storage site at Shchuchye leaks deadly compounds several times a year, a Russian official said yesterday. “We have three to five accidents a year” resulting from leaks caused by corrosion, said Yuri Mamontov, a local administration official in charge of chemical disarmament (see GSN, May 2). “Many munitions have been stored for more than 50 years,” Mamontov said, adding that similar U.S. sites also leak (see GSN, March 25). The accidents have not caused serious harm or injury and are quickly contained, he said. The Shchuchye site stores 2 million shells, missile warheads and other munitions containing lethal chemicals, including sarin and VX gas, the Associated Press reported. The site holds about 14 percent of Russia’s chemical arsenal, which is the world’s largest, according to AP. Russia promised to destroy its weapons when it ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, but the pace has been slow. The United States has pledged to help build a disposal facility at the Shchuchye site, and several European countries have offered to help with the financing. U.S. officials, however, have suspended aid, and Europeans are waiting until the United States resumes funding (see GSN, May 3). A U.S. congressional delegation led by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) visited Shchuchye yesterday following a conference where Lugar, former Senator Sam Nunn and other U.S. and Russian officials discussed new ways to accelerate disarmament and to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. The delegation, which witnessed the destruction of a strategic missile silo in the Chelyabinsk region earlier this week (see GSN, May 29), is also expected to visit a plutonium storage facility at the Mayak nuclear weapons plant, AP reported (Alexei Vladykin, Associated Press/Yahoo.com, May 29). Meeting U.S. Demands Russia has met U.S. demands related to funding for the Shchuchye site, including amending the law on chemical weapons and increasing funds, but the United States still refuses to store funding for the project, the Russian Ammunition Agency has said (see GSN, March 20). Agency leaders said they hope that after the U.S. officials have seen that construction is taking place, the United States will resume financing (Interfax-AVN military news agency/BBC Monitoring, May 29). Meanwhile, Russia has decided to build another chemical weapons destruction facility in Kambark in the Udmurtia Republic. Freezing of U.S. funds for the Shchuchye facility prompted Russia to build the facility, said Alexandra Gorbovsky of the Ammunition Agency. “In order to be able to fulfill our obligations in the conditions of acute shortages, we are forced to change our priorities in constructing facilities for the destruction of military-purpose poisonous substances and to launch the Kambark’s second facility, not the Shchuchye facility,” Gorbovsky said (Interfax news agency/BBC Monitoring, May 29). For further information, see: Federation of American Scientists List of Chemical Weapon Agents
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