SCITECH

October 17, 2007, 13:39
Russia says farewell to chemical arms

Russia’s largest plant for destroying chemical weapons is using proprietary technology to get rid of
bombs and warheads that were made in the USSR years ago.

Disguised as huge hills, the vaults in a forest in the Kirov region near the Urals store almost one-fifth of
the Russian stockpile of chemical weapons.

In 1997, Russia and the United States signed the chemical weapons convention which outlawed their
production, stockpiling and use. The depot called “Object Mardikovo’” was turned into a huge plant
with the sole purpose of destroying its outdated but nevertheless deadly ammunition.

Back in the late 1990s, there was no proved technology to safely dispose of Sarin, Soman and Vx
nerve agents. The U.S. burns their weapons.

The Russian plant in the Kirov region uses a prorate two-stage method to deal with bombs, shells
and warheads. First the casing with the agent is pumped with a special solution. Over three months the
mixture turns into an almost inert mass that can be safely burned down via plasma into a phosphoric
fertilizer.

Since the agent is not extracted from the bomb and the whole process takes place in a sealed room,
there is little danger of its leaking into the atmosphere. Still, mobile laboratories control the environment
around the facility.

Every four-hour shift the plant destroys sixteen units of ammunition. It totals 96 in one day. To date,
21,806 bombs have been neutralized. Russia is planning to completely destroy its chemical weapons
stockpile by 2012.