Destruction of chemical weapons

As part of the treaty, a member state must declare any stockpiles or stored chemical weapons. The CWC guidelines call for each member to report every storage facility by name and geographical location, in addition to a detailed inventory 

Tabun Clear, colorless liquid, faint fruity smell 1 

Lewisite Oily, colorless liquid when pure 1 

Sulfur Mustard Can be clear yellow or brown as liquid 1 

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Verified destruction of chemical weapons (CW) and CW production facilities (CWPF), i.e. disarmament,... 

Under joint sponsorship by the U. S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) and the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE), a bench-scale transpiring wall reactor was developed by Sandia National Laboratories, FWDC, and GenCorp Aerojet. The reactor, which uses SCWO, was designed to treat military and other liquid wastes. A commercial application of the technology is in use to destroy munitions, colored smokes, and dyes. SWCO may also provide a viable alternative to incineration for the destruction of chemical weapons. 

The CWC prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer, or use of chemical weapons. Article IV requires that signatories destroy chemical weapons and any special facilities for their manufacture within 10 years (by April 29, 2007). Destruction of chemical weapons is defined as a process by which chemicals are converted in an essentially irreversible way to a form unsuitable for production of chemical weapons, and which, in an irreversible manner, renders munitions and other devices unusable as such (Smithson, 1993). The method of destruction is determined by each country, but the manner of destruction must ensure public safety and protection of the environment. 

Chapter 7 examines the threat (real and imagined) from a chemical warfare attack today by rationally assessing to what extent terrorist groups around the world are capable of making and using such weapons. Finally, throughout the book, the various protocols that attempted to bring about either the non-production or destruction of chemical weapons from 1675 to 1997 are examined and evaluated. 

PART V Destruction of Chemical Weapons Production Facilities and its Verification Pursuant to Article V... 

M. Sokolowski, Mass Spectra and retention parameters of some o-alkyl alkylphosphonic acids, in Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Analytical Chemistry Associated with Destruction of Chemical Weapons, Brno, Czech Republic, 12-15 May 1996, Kluwer Academic Press, Dordrecht, 99-104, 1997. 

The CWC comprises a preamble, 24 articles and three annexes on chemicals, verification and confidentiality. It is remarkable for the comprehensiveness of its provisions. It covers the development, production, stockpiling and destruction of chemical weapons, defining a chemical weapon as any toxic chemical or its precursor that, through its chemical action, can cause death, injury, temporary incapacity or sensory irritation. Toxic chemicals are integral to modern industry and medicine on a... 

At the conclusion of the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1992, this treaty was heralded as a major breakthrough in multilateral arms control. It was the first comprehensively verifiable multilateral treaty that completely banned an entire class of weapons, and went further than any previous treaty in the depth, extent and intrusiveness of its verification. Verification under the CWC includes compulsory national declarations about relevant industrial and military activities, destruction of chemical weapons within a time frame with intrusive verification, and a regime of routine inspections of declared industrial and military facilities. Additional features are the possibility of a challenge inspection, whereby a State Party can request an inspection of any site in another State Party at short notice, and provisions for the investigation of alleged use of chemical weapons. 

The majority of inspections conducted so far by the OPCW inspectorate have been associated with verifying the destruction of chemical weapons. There are two major reasons for this situation. The first is that the United States and Russia never concluded the bilateral destruction agreement that had been envisaged during negotiations on the CWC, which would have seen the bulk of the verification of destruction of the US and Russian CW stockpiles being conducted by bilateral inspection teams, with OPCW inspectors providing only complementary verifica-... 

The role that the public has assumed - neither enshrined in the treaty documentation nor anticipated by the States Parties is another unique characteristic of the CWC. Here again, the Convention is evolutionary compared with earlier treaties and international agreements. Chemical weapons disposal has emerged as a vivid example of how local environmental justice concerns can intersect with global disarmament and nonproliferation efforts. With no formal inducement, the public has become a player in the execution of the CWC-mandated destruction of chemical weapons. What lessons can be learned from the public response and how... 

Following the experiences at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal during Project Eagle, an experimental facility to test multiple destruction technologies was constructed at Tooele Army Depot in Utah as the Army began to consider destruction of obsolete unitary munitions.In 1982, after substantial internal and external review of the test results from the Tooele facility, incineration was selected for future destruction of chemical weapons. Johnston Atoll, over 800 miles south-west of the Hawaiian islands, was chosen as the site for the first full-scale incinerator facility. 

Walter Krutzsch, The CWC after the Review Conference , in Vladimir M. Kolodkin and Wolfgang Ruck, eds. Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of Chemical Weapons. Proceedings of the NATO ARW on Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of Chemical Weapons (Liineburg, Germany NATO Science Series IV Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 49, October 2003). 

V. S. Polozov, Approach to the CWD Problem of the Deputy of Area Assembly (of the Deputies) , The Third Pubhc Hearings on Chemical Weapons Destruction, Kurgan region (1997) Anatoly A. Fominykh, Implementation of Russia s Obligations to Destroy Chemical Weapons in Udmurtia Repubhc , in Kolodkin and Ruck, eds. Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of Chemical Weapons. 

Vadim Petrov, Safety in the Destruction of Chemical Weapons in Russia , Common Sense (July 1998), p. 9. 

Petrov, Safety in the Destruction of Chemical Weapons in Russia . 

Paul F. Walker, The Demilitarization of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Russia The Case of Chemical Weapons - From Architecture to Implementation , Green Cross Discussion Paper, presented at the Forum for Destruction of Chemical Weapons, Geneva, Switzerland, 26-27 June 2003 ([Pg.149]

Regarding the destruction of chemical weapons, the Director-General reported that, as of May 2005, possessor States Parties had destroyed approximately 11,700 tonnes of chemical warfare agents - representing about 17 per cent of the total declared stockpiles. ... 

These enzymes are promising for destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles, soil remediation, decontamination of materials, protective equipment, and water polluted by pesticides and nerve agents (Russel et al, 2003). In particular, phosphorothiolates such as VX are relatively resistant to PTE. Thus, oxidative cleavage of the P-S bond could be achieved by oxidases like laccases. These enzymes could be used in association with other OP-degrading enzymes for skin decontamination or in topical skin protection formulations. Though no work has been performed on combined action of oxidases and hydrolases, oxidation of P-bonded alkyl/aryl chains by oxidases is expected to alter enantio-selectivity of PTE for parent OPs, and therefore to improve the efficiency of catalytic bioscavengers. 

The collapse of the USSR in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a step forward in controlling chemical weapons. However, by this time, destruction of chemical weapons was becoming increasingly difficult due to environmental issues. Incineration is now the only acceptable method of disposal and as yet only a limited number of suitable incinerators exist as the process is dangerous and expensive. 

The Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission (CAC) and the Pueblo community are committed to the safe and effective destruction of chemical weapons. The use of neutralization/biotreatment, with as much of the process completed on site, remains, in the opinion of the CAC and a majority of the citizens in the Pueblo community, the safest and most publicly acceptable method for the destruction of the weapons stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot (PCD). ... 

CAC (Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission). Undated. Recommendations from the Colorado Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission to PMACWA Concerning Acceleration Options for the Destruction of Chemical Weapons Stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot. Available online at http //www.cdphe. state.co.us/hm/pcd/cac/aowg/accelerationoptions.pdf. Last accessed March 13, 2008. 

PMACWA (Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives). 2003. Transportation Risk Assessment Options for the Offsite Shipment and Disposal of Residual Wastes from the Destruction of Chemical Weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, April. 

Formally known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development. Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (P.L. 105-277), the CWC requires the destruction of chemical weapons in the stockpile by 2007 and any non-stockpile weapons in storage at the time of the treaty ratification (1997) within 2, 5, or 10 years of the ratification date, depending on the type of chemical weapon or on the type of chemical with which an item is filled. 

Jensen, R.A. 1991. Successful destruction of chemical weapons and agent the BZ experience. Annual Meeting and Exhibition Proceedings of the Air and Waste Management Association, 2-14. 

CWC) Deadline for Complete Destruction of Chemical Weapons Stocks, http //www.state. 

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