17 November 2003 13:04
Disposal of chemical weapons completed at South Russia facilityy

On Friday, a chemical weapons destruction facility in the community of Gorny in the Saratov region completed the disposal of stockpiles of mustard gas on Friday, an interregional information and analytical center on safe storage and disposal of chemical weapons announced on Monday.

The facility has destroyed 622.3 tonnes of yprit, releasing 1,371.6 tonnes of stock, the center said. On Friday, specialists began taking the yprit disposal line out of operation. The process includes the completion of detoxification, degassing, washing, blowing, and drying of the equipment that was in direct contact with the war gas. The lewisite disposal line in the Gorny facility will be put into operation only after the yprit line is completely taken out of operation, the center said. The yprit polymerization products that was released in the form of sediment after the lengthy storage of the gas in containers will be processed during the disposal of yprit-lewisite mixtures after the lewisite stored at the facility is fully destroyed.

The Ministry of Natural Resources, which inspected the Gorny facility in late October, found that the maximum permissible concentration of war gases was not exceeded.