Japan conventional biologies

PHB and other PHAs can also be blended with other biodegradable polymers. In Japan, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry s Biological Industry Institute in 1990 announced the development of blends of PHB and polycaprolactone (PCL). The blends can be processed with conventional equipment, and the ratio of the two polymers determines the rate of degradation. ... 

As a consequence, the first significant discussions of a ban on chemical weapons since the Geneva Protocol of 1925 started soon after the conclusion of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in 1972. During negotiations at UN disarmament conferences in Geneva, exploratory initiatives by Japan (1974) and the United Kingdom (1976) were proposed for a chemical weapons ban. 

CHINA. As of 2006, the People s Republic of China (PRC) was estimated to possess 145 operational strategic nuclear weapons. China is thought to possess operational tactical nuclear weapons as well, although no unclassified information is available regarding numbers and types of such weapons. The PRC is a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and has declared that it possesses chemical weapons (CW) abandoned on its territory by Japan during World War II. It is estimated that at least 700,000 abandoned chemical weapons (ACW) are located in the PRC, mainly in the northeastern provinces. The nature and scope of a Chinese biological weapons (BW) program, if one exists or did exist, are unknown. 

Human experience with nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) warfare has been limited by comparison with conventional forms of warfare. Our experience with nuclear warfare is confined to a period of less than one week during what turned out to be the end of World War II, when the United States successfully used two nuclear weapons (then popularly called atomic bombs ) against targets in Japan. The necessity for dropping of those weapons continues to be debated, although Japan s nearly immediate decision to surrender is certain to have limited the loss of life, other injuries, and the destruction of the landscape and infrastructure that would have accompanied a military invasion by conventional arms. 

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