ENVIRONMENT-RUSSIA: Destroying Chemical Weapons Not Easy

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Mar 6 2003 (IPS) - Where a government is determined to destroy chemical weapons, it is running into opposition because groups say the process is not environmentally friendly.

For the moment Russia’s only chemical weapons disposal facility continues operations, but that process has come under worrying clouds.

The Natural Resources Ministry ordered the plant in Gorny, 450 miles southeast of Moscow to stop operations Monday this week. An inspection reported last week that Gorny "violates control measures to limit hazardous emissions and safety standards of storing liquid waste from the destruction of mustard gas." Officials say also that the plant has no licence to handle hazardous chemical waste.

Sergei Kiriyenko, former prime minister and now chairman of the State Commission on Chemical Disarmament said Tuesday that "there is no ban, the plant continues normal operations." He said the ministry’s order arose from a bureaucratic dispute.

The plant is due to be shut down temporarily only for technical checks after it has destroyed 400 tonnes of mustard gas by April 29, officials say.

Russian officials in charge of chemical disarmament deny there is any danger. "The Gorny plant will not halt operations because it poses no environmental threat whatsoever," says an official from the State Commission on Chemical Disarmament. The plant is due to expand operations in May.

But officials concede there have been problems recently. An alternative generator had to keep the disposal process going and to ensure environmental safety after a power breakdown February 19.

Russia is keeping up its international commitments to dispose of its chemical weapons, Kiriyenko says. The Gorny plant has disposed of more than 100 tonnes of mustard gas so far.

The plant, the first facility of its kind, started operations in December last year. By May this year it will aim to destroy one per cent of Russia’s chemicals arsenal. Russia has an estimated arsenal of 40,000 tonnes of poisonous gases stored at seven facilities, all of them in European Russia.

Moscow undertook to destroy all chemical weapons by 2008 when it ratified the international Chemical Weapons Convention in November 1997.

But the Russian government has asked for more aid and more time to destroy the deadly chemicals, four-fifths of which are nerve agents. Russia is behind schedule in its commitment to destroy the chemical weapons. It now wants to use a provision in the convention that would give it an additional five years.

Russia may consider temporary withdrawal from the convention if its proposals are not accepted, says Gen Nikolai Bezborodov, deputy head of the commission on chemical disarmament.

Moscow has previously argued that it would need some seven billion dollars to destroy its chemicals arsenal. The Russian government is spending more than 700 million dollars by 2004. The U.S. has committed about 900 million dollars to the design and construction of seven destruction facilities.

These include the largest facility at Shchuchye due to begin destruction of chemical weapons next year. About 14 per cent of Russia’s chemical weapons are stored at Shchuchye in the Ural mountains.

Russian officials say the Gorny plant is important because it is due to test new disposal technologies. But Lev Fyodorov, head of the independent Union for Chemical Safety says Gorny and the other facilities under construction have been given untested technology.

The technology being used can only reprocess combat chemical poisons for military use into substances that cannot be used in combat, but which remain highly hazardous, Fyodorov says. After disposing of 40,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, Russia may end up with 150,000 tonnes of non-combat but highly toxic material, he says.

Russian officials in charge of destroying the chemical weapons have repeatedly denied Fyodorov’s claims.

But several organisations support those claims. A group of 50 environment NGOs (non-government organisations) sent a joint petition to President Vladimir Putin in January urging him to improve the disposal process.

Russian authorities have publicly dismissed criticism, but have ordered extra precautions. Health services have begun monitoring the surrounding area since January. About 8,000 people live close to the plant.

An information centre has been set up near the plant to dispel "chemophobia". The centre seeks to keep media, environmental groups and the local population informed of activities at the plant.

The Gorny plant employs 1,200 people, but only 125 deal directly with disposal. The rest offer technical support.

Zinoviy Pak, head of Russia’s Munitions Agency which has charge of destroying the chemical weapons and first deputy minister for natural resources Vitaly Karaganov agreed Wednesday to coordinate efforts to solve Gorny’s environmental problems by March 31.