NTI: Global Security Newswire

CDC List of Chemical Agents

From October 17, 2002 issue.

United States: Newport Depot Receives Funding for Accelerated Disposal

The U.S. Congress has approved $161 million to accelerate the disposal of VX stockpiles at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Aug. 8).

The funding is included in the recently approved defense appropriations bill awaiting President George W. Bush’s signature (see related GSN story, today). The funding is about equal to what the Army had said it needed to dispose of the 1,269 tons VX stored at the depot three years ahead of schedule, said Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). The disposal project is scheduled to begin next year and is expected to take about nine months (Associated Press, Oct. 17).

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Federation of American Scientists Information on Chemical Weapons

From October 16, 2002 issue.

U.S. Response: Researchers Develop Ricin Vaccine

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a ricin vaccine found to be effective in mice, Gene Therapy Weekly reported this week (see GSN, Aug. 20).

Ricin is a chemical toxin made from castor beans, which produces flu-like symptoms and causes death in a few days. It can be administered through food and water or via an aerosol spray.

“Ricin is not only dangerous, but it is also cheap and easy to make,” said Ellen Vitetta, director of the university’s Southwestern Cancer Immunobiology Center and senior author of the study on the ricin vaccine, set to be published in the medical journal Vaccine.

The vaccine, developed through recombinant technology, will be tested against airborne ricin once the experiments can be conducted in a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory, Vitetta said, adding that arrangements for such a facility were in the planning stage.

“We have only tested it against injected ricin, but, based on past experience, there’s every reason to believe it will be protective against aerosolized ricin,” she said.

Once vaccinated mice have been tested against airborne ricin, the next step would be to begin production and storage of the vaccine, as well as human trials, Vitetta said. U.S. agencies or private companies would have to step in and conduct the clinical trials because of limited resources, she said (Gene Therapy Weekly, Oct. 17).

From October 16, 2002 issue.

CWC: Treaty Organization Must Redirect Focus, Report Claims

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Strained for resources, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention, is not completing one of its most inherent and important tasks, according to a report from a British arms control group (see GSN, Oct. 15).

Verifying the destruction of existing chemical weapons is eclipsing the convention’s role in ensuring new chemical weapons are not created, according to the Verification Research, Training and Information Center (VERTIC). While treaty parties have declared 4,881 chemical production sites since the CWC came into effect in 1997, there have been only 452 inspections. Some of those sites — Schedule 1 and 2 facilities that produce extremely dangerous chemicals or dual-use chemicals —were inspected more than once, meaning that the number of different plants inspected is even lower.

“There is no implication in the CWC that at any stage industry verification should be a secondary activity to CW destruction verification,” the report says. “Contrary to this vision, in the first five years of the convention, verification activity has concentrated largely on existing CW stocks, former CW production facilities and CW destruction plants, while industry inspections have been relatively neglected.”

The report cites several causes for the lack of industry inspections, including late industry declarations, declining political support for industry verifications and financial constraints.

Indeed, while it is getting the lion’s share of the OPCW’s attention, the destruction of chemical weapons is moving much slower than planned. The organization uses scarce resources to verify destruction of stockpiles, and little is left over for industry, the report says.

As more chemical weapons are destroyed in coming years, the OPCW will need to shift more attention to verifying industry compliance, the report says. It is important, however, to expand the industry verification now in order to establish continuity and begin risk assessment in earnest, the report says.

Solutions

The report recommends that the OPCW spend at least one-quarter of its budget on industry verification in each of the next three years, with an increased emphasis on industry coming after 2006. In 2001, the OPCW spent 15 percent of its budget on industry inspections.

The report also cites remote monitoring and the use of instruments such as flowmeters to monitor the destruction process, which would free up much needed resources. Although such equipment would be expensive, the money would be spent up front and savings would be seen in the long run, the report says.

The report also recommends the organization simplify inspections to reduce costs and make at least one inspection of a facility in every member country that declared any chemical facility.

For further information, see:

From October 15, 2002 issue.

CWC: Treaty Parties Grant Significant Budget Increase

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The fortunes of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which implements the world’s major chemical weapons treaty, appear to have turned for the better Friday, with member states approving a significant increase in resources.

Chemical Weapons Convention members approved a 10 percent budget increase to $67 million for 2003, the organization said in a press release today.

Two other decisions made by the conference will allow the organization to use a budgetary surplus from 2001 and money from a working capital fund, serving “to improve markedly the OPCW’s financial situation,” it said.

The increased funding will enable more spending on inspections, the organization said. The group will also be able to spend more on “protection and assistance” against chemical weapons, “which is important in the context of the OPCW’s contribution to international efforts to combat terrorism,” it added.

In addition, the U.S. delegation said last week that it plans to voluntarily contribute $2 million in addition to its annual assessment.

“The news was well received,” said John Hart, a U.S. researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden. “That extra $2 million will go a long way toward addressing any financial problems in the coming year.”

Hart cautioned, however, that the organization still might face serious budgetary difficulties resulting from an expected increase in chemical weapons destruction facilities in Russia and the United States that will need to be monitored.

He added, “It is still unclear whether the conference of states parties have adequately addressed structural problems of the budget process.”

Changed Climate

Earlier this year, the very survival of the organization seemed in jeopardy. Citing mismanagement, the United States and other key states withheld their dues pending the removal of the organization’s former director general, Jose Bustani. Member states voted in April to remove Bustani, a Brazilian diplomat (see GSN, April 23), and they voted in July to approve Argentina’s Rogelio Pfirter to head the organization (see GSN, July 26).

“It was quite clear that there was a new atmosphere … in each case, doors were left open for negotiation and compromise. That was in stark contrast to what happened over the past two years,” said Jean Pascal Zanders, who is the project leader on chemical and biological warfare for SIPRI and who attended the conference.

“Following from the removal of Bustani, many states parties, including key states parties such as the United States, appear to have given the OPCW a second chance,” he said.

Other Proposed Changes

In addition to the funding increases, the assembled states approved in principle extensions to Russia’s obligations to meet two treaty deadlines: one for destroying 1 percent and the other for destroying 20 percent its chemical weapons stockpiles (see related GSN story, today).

They approved a Russian request to convert rather than destroy nine former chemical weapons production facilities, at Volgograd and Novocheboksarsk in Russia, to peaceful purposes.

The states also approved an extension for another unidentified party to meet its timeline for destruction of 20 percent of its stockpile by April 2003. Analysts say the party is South Korea, which has requested the OPCW not state it has a chemical weapons stockpiles.

By making these extensions, the state’s parties are begrudgingly accepting the reality of delays in destruction, while trying to maintain control of the process by reviewing it each year, Zanders said.

“States parties refused to give Russia a blanket extension,” he said.

To help curb the projected costs of a growing workload of OPCW inspections, states requested the director general to prepare proposals for greater use of monitoring equipment at chemical weapons storage and destruction facilities, apparently as an alternative to inspection. The states also asked the director general to consider proposals for the “optimization” of verification activities during inspections of chemical weapons related and industrial facilities, including the intensity of inspections, sizes of inspection teams, and other related issues, according to the press release.

“The major problem here is that approximately 70 percent of inspector days have been spent at chemical weapons destruction facilities,” Hart said.

The amount is expected to increase as destruction is stepped up, he said, potentially sapping funding from other inspection activities.

“The number of chemical weapons destruction facilities is rising, and something is going to have to change,” he said. “You can reduce the cost of these inspections by reducing the size of inspection teams, and some of that has been done, and you can increase your emphasis on using certain types of equipment on site.”

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From October 15, 2002 issue.

Russia: OPCW Extends Destruction Deadlines

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which oversees the Chemical Weapons Convention, has granted Russia extensions for two of its chemical weapons destruction deadlines, the organization said today (see GSN, Oct. 9).

During a conference held last week at The Hague, the OPCW agreed in principle to grant Russia extensions for two deadlines — the destruction of 1 percent and of 20 percent of its chemical weapons arsenal, the OPCW said in a press statement. The conference authorized the OPCW Executive Council to set a new date for the first deadline by the end of this year and to recommend a date for the second deadline by October 2003.

The conference also agreed to grant a deadline extension to another, unspecified OPCW member for the destruction of 20 percent of its chemical weapons (see related GSN story, today).

The OPCW established detailed reporting requirements for Russia and called on other countries to assist in destroying Russia’s chemical weapons. It agreed to a Russian request to convert, rather than destroy, nine former chemical weapons production sites (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons release, Oct. 15).

Sergei Kiriyenko, chairman of the Russian state commission on chemical disarmament, praised the OPCW’s decision to grant the conversion request.

“Conversion is very important to us: It means about 2,000 jobs,” Kiriyenko said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “People who are experts in the chemical weapons sphere will not be left unemployed. This is relevant to the question of control of technology drain” (Kommersant/BBC Monitoring, Oct. 14).

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