Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Even as U.S. officials and legislators chide Russia for straying from a Chemical Weapons Convention deadline to destroy its chemical weapons, an international nongovernmental organization has charged that the United States will do the same.

The treaty requires all parties to destroy their entire chemical weapons stocks by 2007, but allows parties to request extensions that would not go beyond 2012.

Paul Walker, director of Global Green USA’s Legacy Program, said it is possible neither the United States or Russia would even meet the extended deadline for destroying their chemical weapons.

“There is not a snowball’s chance in hell” the United States will meet the treaty’s 2007 goal and, “We’re going to have a hard time meeting 2012,” he said. The United States has not sought an extension so far, but Russia has made clear that it will need one (see GSN, Oct. 9, 2002).

Walker said Russia was even more certain than the United States to miss the 2012 deadline (see GSN, Nov. 11, 2002).

He made the charges last week at the treaty’s first five-year review conference in The Hague. U.S. officials there have not responded to requests for comment.

As evidence of Walker’s charges, his colleague Stephen Robinson, a Green Cross International program coordinator in Switzerland, cited a 2001 Congressional Research Service assessment of an internal U.S. Army report.

The Army report, according to the Congressional Research Service, demonstrated significant delays at all U.S. chemical weapons destruction sites. 

The Army responded at the time that the report was reflecting a “worst-case scenario,” and last week U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Rademaker told the treaty conference that U.S. destruction efforts were on schedule.

“Since entry into force, we have met every treaty milestone, and to date have destroyed over 22 percent of our stockpile,” he said.

Citing Army documents in 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that the destruction program would probably go past the 2007 deadline and result in a cost increase from a projected $15 billion to $24 billion.

A Complex TaskWalker attributed the projected delays in part to inherent difficulties in destroying the estimated 31,000-ton U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons agents.

“I think the issue is … the fact that even though the United States is pressing ahead with over $1 billion funding every year for our program, the programs remain susceptible to political winds and technical crises which are to some extent unpredictable,” he said.

He said the Army’s decision in the 1980s to incinerate its chemical weapons was also a problem. Community concerns about the safety of the method prompted lawsuits that held up site construction, and congressional legislation has stalled construction at two sites in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky., he said. 

“I think it was a big mistake a couple of years ago to put all of our eggs in the incinerator basket,” he said.

U.S. Facilities in Different Stages of OperationThe Army was forced to abandon incineration plans for the sites at Pueblo, Richmond, Aberdeen, Md. (see GSN, Dec. 11, 2002), and Newport, Ind. (see GSN, Nov. 19, 2002). Nonincineration facilities have since been constructed at Aberdeen and Newport and formal decisions are pending on what destruction technology to use at the Pueblo and Richmond sites (see GSN, July 25, 2002).

The Army’s use of incinerators at Umatilla, Ore. (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2002), Anniston, Ala. (see GSN, March 3), and Tooele, Utah (see GSN, April 29), meanwhile, has proven technologically challenging, with glitches stalling operations over the past year, Walker said.

Umatilla has been unable to begin incineration because it has not met Environmental Protection Agency requirements, he said.

While incineration was considered to be the most mature technology for chemical demilitarization in the 1980s, he said “the technology is so complicated, and so difficult to manage and maintain, that what we’re finding is it has become fairly problematic to operate.”

A fourth incinerator in Pine Bluff, Ark., is still being prepared (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2002).

In 2000, the Army completed destroying 400,000 munitions containing VX, mustard and sarin, and 2,031 tons of mustard agent at an incineration facility on Johnston Atoll, a Pacific island. The shutdown of that facility is currently underway following a significant cleanup (see GSN, April 30). The island also was used for nuclear testing in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Destruction a ConcernWhile noting U.S. progress last week, Stephen Rademaker told the review conference that “destruction of chemical weapons, on the whole, is not proceeding at the rate foreseen in the convention, and this lack of progress must concern us all.”

He pointed to Russia: “While we welcome the recent beginning of destruction operations at Gorny in the Russian Federation, destruction of the Russian stockpile remains a significant challenge” (see GSN, April 28).

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