Russian Chemical Weapons Disposal Site Opens

Operations began today at Russia’s third chemical weapons disposal facility, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 6).

The facility at Maradykovsky is expected to destroy 6,900 tons of nerve agent, 17 percent of the total Russian chemical weapons arsenal.

“Today’s event … demonstrates Russia’s efforts to strictly fulfill its international commitments and shows that Russia has the political will to see through to the end of the process of chemical disarmament,” said Victor Kholstov, who leads the Russian chemical weapons disposal program.

Russia has the world’s largest chemical weapons stockpile, and to date has eliminated only 3 percent of the arsenal.  The United States has eliminated 39 percent of its stockpile, the second-largest in the world.

While other disposal sites have been built with foreign assistance, Moscow used only its own money for the Maradykovsky plant, AP reported.

“The Russians a couple years ago made a critical decision that if they were to have any chance of meeting Chemical Weapons Convention deadlines, they had to go to the easier, bulk agent sites,” said Paul Walker, director of the Legacy Program at Global Green USA.  “I think also from a reason of national pride, they really wanted to do one site themselves and have it be successful.”

The facility will use neutralization technology to eliminate munitions containing VX, soman and sarin nerve agents, along with weapons filled with a mix of lewisite and mustard blister agents.  Each weapon must be opened and possibly partially drained to allow for inserting a neutralizing reagent, AP reported.  The munitions are then closed and stored for several months while the neutralization process is under way.

The technology has not been tested at the international level, Walker said.

“Every time you open one of those bombs, it’s a very high-risk event in which workers have to be completely suited up in oxygen suits, because any molecules that might drip or vaporize out of those containers could kill somebody immediately,” he said.

He also expressed concern about the planned speed of work at Maradykovsky.  Global Green estimates it at more than 500 metric tons per month, a rate aimed at helping Russia meet the April 2007 international deadline to eliminate 20 percent of its chemical stockpile.

The head of the information office at Maradykovsky for Green Cross International, of which Global Green USA is an affiliate, said be believed the technology being used at the plant was “one of the safest” (Judith Ingram, Associated Press, Sept. 8).

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