MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin) - September 8 is going to be a big day at Maradykovsky in the Kirov Region: the third chemical weapons destruction facility in Russia is to go on stream there.
The first two, as those watching the process of demolishing the oldest weapon of mass destruction know, were built at Gorny (Saratov Region) and Kambarka in Udmurtia. Gorny has already disposed of 1,143.2 metric tons of yperite, lewisite and their mixes. The other site, in Kambarka, where destruction capacities are seven times greater than at Gorny, and which recently stored 6,380 tons of lewisite, had eliminated almost ten per cent of its stocks by September 1.
Lastly, we are seeing a new facility entering the process, with the second largest inventory of chemical weapons nearby - more than 6,900 tons (or 6,980 tons to be more precise) of particularly dangerous organophosphorus war gases - sarin, soman and VX-gases - as well as yperite and lewisite mixes, or 17.4% of the 40,000 tons of gas Russia accumulated in the Cold War years. They make the stuffing for more than 40,000 aviation bombs and warheads of short- and shorter-range missiles here.
News agencies have reported that the state commission has cleared the first stage of the facility for operation. The acceptance protocol, signed after 21 days of the commission's work, notes that all the buildings, structures, technological lines and engineering communications inspected in the industrial and sanitary protection zones meet the requirements for technological and environmental safety.
"Members of the commission who signed the protocol pointed out that the most important part of the job had been done, and all omissions noted by the commission were rectified on time," Mikhail Manin, head of the conventional problems department of the regional administration, told journalists. "There are no counter-indications to launching the facility." The local executive's words are confirmed by the fact that inspectors from the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and specialists from the countries that had signed the convention started monitoring the process. They are housed in specially built cottages and like their Russian colleagues come to their offices every day to see how carefully and thoroughly Russia is fulfilling its chemical disarmament pledges.
A unique two-stage technology devised by Russian scientists is used to demolish chemicals inside aviation bombs and missile warheads at Maradykovsky. First, the ammunitions are holed, then a special detoxifying solution is pumped inside. After that the mixture is subjected to further treatment, with the resultant safe product stored until a decision is taken on its further utilization: whether to be buried at a special site or used in the chemical industry to extract costly and necessary ingredients for present-day highly technological production.
The Maradykovsky facility, whose design capacity is 2,000 tons a year, is scheduled to be finally completed in two years' time. Viktor Kholstov, one of the top executives of the Federal Industrial Agency responsible for war gas demolition, told RIA Novosti that by April 29, 2007, the second stage of Russia's undertaking under the convention, it will have destroyed about 4,300 tons of the gases. All stocks of toxic agents stored in the Kirov Region will be disposed of by 2012. By that time, Russia is to report the fulfillment of all its obligations to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
In order to solve such a technologically and financially complex problem Russia must build four more destruction facilities, which require at least 161 billion rubles, or $6 billion to complete. Three of them will be located in Kizner (Udmurtia), with 5,680 tons of stored nerve gases; in Leonidovka (Penza Region), with 6,880 tons of sarin, soman and VX-gases; and in Pochep (Bryansk Region) with 7,560 tons of nerve gases. There is also Shchuchye (Kurgan Region), storing nerve gases - sarin, soman and VX-gases - in the warheads of short- and shorter-range missiles and artillery ammunition. Its stocks amount to 5,440 tons. The faculty at Shchuchye was to have made a substantial contribution to Russia's fulfillment of obligations to the international community. It was planned to have gone into operation in 2005 and to have played a significant role in the second stage of abolishing Russia's chemical weapons - 8,000 tons by April 29, 2007. But Washington promised and failed to provide the $880 million needed for the construction of basic equipment. First it demanded that the Russian government allowed it to test the nerve gas detoxification technology. Then it began insisting on priority construction of housing and social amenities at Shchuchye, for which - by consent and common logic - Moscow was to answer. And when this condition was fulfilled, American congressmen requested that Russia disclose its stocks of binary weapons, and let U.S. controllers into biological research centers not connected with chemical weapons or their destruction ... In short, there were always some snags cropping up preventing the fulfillment of its obligations.
Yet not all countries act as "insidiously" as the U.S. Germany has allocated a large sum for the construction of facilities at Gorny and Kambarka. The United Kingdom and Canada are liberal contributors to the construction of the facility at Shchuchye. Help comes from Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, the European Union, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland. There are good prospects with Sweden, Finland, France and Ireland, Kholstov said. At the same time, he said, foreign assistance goes towards the construction of only three of the seven facilities. Most of the cooperation with foreign partners in chemical disarmament is in the areas of equipment supplies, elements of industrial and engineering infrastructure, assembly and start-up work, and specialist training.
Other countries are reluctant to finance capital outlays in the construction itself, but these expenses make up 40% of all combined project costs. They also refuse to finance social infrastructure, built in the interest of regions and running destruction facilities. These expenses make up 10% of the aggregate cost of the facilities concerned.
But all this is now of secondary importance, said the deputy head of the Federal Industrial Agency. By commissioning one more facility at Maradykovsky Russia has demonstrated that even with small-scale foreign aid it is in a position to carry out its international obligations for the destruction of toxic agents stocks.
