United States:  Oregon Shuts Down Weapons Incinerator

A test burn at the U.S. Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon released more than the allowable amounts of chromium and lead into the air, forcing state environmental officials Wednesday to declare the facility closed until further notice (see GSN, Sept. 5).

The incinerator’s stack released more than twice the allowable amount of chromium and slightly more than the permissible amount of lead, but the 10-minute test did not release enough metals to harm the general public, officials said.  Army technicians are testing the incinerator to determine the cause of the problem, the Associated Press reported.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality told the Army it has until Monday to produce an assessment plan identifying the problem and a solution.  The department said it will require weekly meetings with the Army until the problem is fixed and burns may begin (Associated Press, Oct. 4).

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Pakistan:  OPCW Will Not Inspect Chemical Plants, Officials Say

Contradicting earlier reports, Pakistan denied Monday that it plans to open five chemical plants to inspections by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international group that administers the Chemical Weapons Convention (see GSN, Sept. 30).

Pakistan has a procedure in place to handle any OPCW requests for inspection but “no such industrial inspection has been scheduled by the OPCW in Pakistan,” the Foreign Office said (Islamabad News, Oct. 2).

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CWC:  Samoa Ratifies Treaty

Samoa ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention Sept. 27, becoming the 147^th country to do so (see GSN, Sept. 20).  It signed the CWC in 1993.  There are 27 states that have signed the convention but not yet ratified it (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons release, Oct. 3).

For further information, see:

CWC Text

OPCW Main Page

CWC States Parties

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Russia:  Shchuchye Disposal Plant Runs Out of U.S. Funds

Construction of a Russian chemical weapons disposal plant located near the city of Shchuchye could come to a halt if the U.S. Defense Department does not receive congressional approval to provide more funding, USA Today reported today (see GSN, Aug. 23).

The Pentagon plans to begin canceling Shchuchye construction contracts this month because it has run out of funds for the project today, the start of fiscal 2003, officials said.   The Pentagon has requested $126 million for construction at Shchuchye.  To maintain the project, it needs at least $35 million in funding blocked by Congress, according to USA Today.

“If we don’t get this money, we’re going to have to start taking down the (contracting) teams we’ve assembled,” said Thomas Kuenning, chief of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (see GSN, April 3).

Congress approved the $35 million for the Shchuchye project in its fiscal 2002 budget, but legislators set certain conditions that are blocking the Pentagon from using the funds.  The conditions include six criteria, such as providing an inventory of its chemical weapons stockpile, that Russia must meet before funds are released (see GSN, March 20).

Opponents of the Shchuchye project “are using these criteria as a stick to hit the Russians,” said Michael Moodie, president of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute in Washington.  “Their feeling is, ‘If we’re going to have these assistance programs, we’re going to make it as hard as we can for the Russians.’”

The Bush administration has asked Congress for the authority to overturn the criteria, USA Today reported (see GSN, Aug. 1).  Congress might approve a limited short-term waiver this year, Representative Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said.

“A blanket waiver removes some of the leverage we have to make sure Russia complies with the intended purposes for these funds,” Thornberry said (see GSN, July 19).  “The bigger issue is how big is the problem and if we spend this much money, how much of a dent will it make?”

Waiver opponents have said Russia has not provided an accurate account of its chemical weapons arsenal and has not provided the United States with enough access to chemical weapons sites.  Nuclear Threat Initiative Chief Executive Officer Sam Nunn has said, however, that waiver opponents have misplaced their focus.

“They want a confession, and what we need is a solution,” Nunn said, adding Russia has shown “good faith” so far in its chemical weapons disposal program.

Russian officials have said the hold on promised U.S. funds is unnecessary.  Russia has increased its own contribution to its chemical weapons disposal program and has replaced ineffective military managers with civilians, they said.

“We are fulfilling all of our obligations,” said Nikolai Plate, of the Russian State Commission on Chemical Disarmament.  “The U.S. promised this money, and they should give it to us and come see that we will use it to destroy the weapons” (Peter Eisler, USA Today, Oct. 1).

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nuclear Threat Initiative is the sole sponsor of Global Security Newswire, which is published independently by National Journal Group, Inc.]

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CWC:  Request Challenge Inspections, Experts Say

By David McGlinchey
Global Security Newswire

Members of the Chemical Weapons Convention should exercise a critical “challenge inspections” clause of the agreement soon to prevent the provision from becoming worthless, according to a recent report from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California (see GSN, Sept. 23).

A treaty party that has a concern about another’s compliance can request a challenge inspection for which no minimum level of evidence is required.  Five years after the convention was enacted, however, no challenge inspections have been requested, according to the report — The Conduct of Challenge Inspections Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, edited by researcher Jonathan Tucker and compiled from a workshop of government and private nonproliferation experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland.

Framers of the treaty intended that members should call for challenge inspections routinely, the experts said.

“Unless the convention’s challenge inspection provisions are exercised in the near future, they will lose all political credibility and hence effectiveness in deterring treaty violations,” the report says.

Challenge inspections might detract from the hundreds of routine inspections for which the convention is responsible, but finances should not be a deciding factor, the experts said.

“Because such inspections are mandated by the CWC, member states will simply have to find the funds to carry them out,” the report says.

Although there have been no challenge inspections to date, the United States has repeatedly accused Iran of violating its treaty obligations, and Cuban officials have made the same allegations regarding the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Workshop participants agreed that one or two challenges per year would give the procedure a sense of normalcy.  The first one used, however, will carry political considerations and possible retaliatory inspections, the experts said.

The convention would also be pressured to conduct the first challenge inspection successfully, the report says.  If the inspection is poorly executed or does not address the compliance concern, it could undermine “the credibility and deterrent value of the CWC.”

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