OPCW Director-General visit Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility in Anniston, USA

OPCW News - Monday 22 Feb 2010

At the invitation of the U.S. Government the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, paid a visit to the chemical weapons destruction facility (CWDF) at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama on 17 February 2010. He was accompanied on this visit by Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, who will succeed Ambassador Pfirter as Director-General in July.

The Director-General and Ambassador Üzümcü were briefed by U.S. authorities on the U.S. chemical weapons destruction programme in general, and on the activities at the Anniston CWDF in particular, and were given a tour of the destruction facility.

During their visit to Anniston they were accompanied by senior U.S. officials, including Dr Arthur Hopkins, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, Treaties and Threat Reduction; Mr. Jean D. Reed, Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Chemical and Biological Defense and Chemical Demilitarization Programs; Mr Carmen Spencer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Elimination of Chemical Weapons); Dr. Robert Mikulak, Executive Director of the U.S. National Authority; Mr Conrad Whayne, Director, U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency; and Mr. Kevin J. Flamm, Program Manager, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program, Department of Defense.

The Anniston CWDF is scheduled to complete destruction of 2.045 metric tonnes of chemical agents - 7.1% of the total amount declared by the United States of America - by the final deadline of April 2012 set by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The facility has thus far destroyed about two-thirds of the Anniston stockpile.

OPCW News  03/2010

For further information, please contact Michael Luhan, Head, OPCW Media & Public Affairs.
Tel: + 31 (0) 70 416 3710 or +31 (0)6 5356 8512 or media@opcw.org.

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