RIA Novosti
RUSSIAN NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY
23 November 2006
Opinion
& analysis
Chemical
weapons destruction facility hit by accident
News broke Wednesday that an accident has taken place at the Maradykovo
chemical weapons destruction facility in the Kirov Region (Eastern
Russia).
According to the Union for Chemical Safety, during the disarmament of
aerial bombs several shells burst open and spilled their contents.
Residents of the Mirny settlement, where the complex is located, heard
an alarm go off at the facility. But the Emergencies Ministry and the
local administration are denying the reports.
The chemical weapons arsenal at Maradykovo Station (80 kilometers from
the regional center) has been operating since 1941. Currently, it is
storing about 40,000 aerial bombs and missile warheads containing
organophosphorus nerve toxic agents (sarin, soman, tabun, V gases, and
yperite and lewisite mixes).
The total volume of toxic chemicals at Maradykovo is 6,936 tons, or
17.4% of all Russian chemical weapons stockpiles.
Maradykovo is using a unique method to neutralize toxic chemicals,
without extracting them from their bomb and warhead casings.
A second site is now under construction. Following its completion, the
facility's capacity will reach 2,000 tons a year. Total destruction of
toxic agents at Maradykovo is planned to be complete by 2011-2012.
According to Andrei Taranov, chairman of the Union for Chemical Safety,
local personnel learned of the poisonous leak by chance.
A special commission, led by Lieutenant-General Valery Kapashin, head
of the federal department for safe storage and destruction of chemical
weapons, is investigating at Maradykovo.
Earlier, Tatiana Korolyova, settlement council deputy and a member of
the local branch of the Union for Chemical Safety, also reported the
emergency at Maradykovo. But on Wednesday she was not available to the
press.
At the facility, any information about the accident is strongly denied.
Its press service has reported that the visit by General Kapashin was a
scheduled one. He presided over several meetings at Maradykovo and then
departed for Moscow.
"That the facility has reportedly suffered from an accident he learned
on the Internet. The governor phoned him, but the general reassured
him, laying all rumors to rest," the press service said.
"There are a lot of rumors about the chemical arsenal, but I have not
seen a single victim so far," Igor Voronchikhin told the Kommersant
correspondent.
Voronchikhin is head of administration of Mirny (population 4,000) on
whose territory the potentially dangerous facility is situated. The
regional department for civil defense and emergencies has no
information about the event either.
Meanwhile Mirny residents are discussing rumors of the accident at the
facility.
"We do not know what exactly happened - either an accident, a release,
or a shell falling to the ground. But they said an alarm sounded at the
facility, and everybody hid in a shelter, except for the staff of one
department, who were either forgotten in the confusion or were not
warned in time. Those people were poisoned with some kind of gas," said
one of the residents.
