CASH cuts and a lack of clean disposal technology look likely to prevent
Russia and the US from keeping promises to destroy their chemical weapons.
Countries signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention are meant to destroy
their chemical weapons arsenals by 29 April 2007. But officials from Russia and
the US told delegates in The Hague that they will not make the deadline. Russia
simply hasn鈥檛 enough cash for the task, says Valery Semin of the Russian foreign
ministry. Money has become even tighter since the US stopped funding Russia鈥檚
chemical weapons destruction programme last year after Russia failed to fund its
share of the work.
In the US, weapons destruction has been stymied by local opposition to
incinerators. The US Army insists it can burn its 32 000 tonnes of nerve agents
and mustard gas safely, and on time. But environmentalists in the towns of
Pueblo, Colorado, and Blue Grass, Kentucky, where 3130 tonnes of mustard and
nerve gas are stored, have convinced Congress to halt incinerator construction
and look for alternatives. Bruce Braun, head of military technology at the
National Research Council, told the conference that no alternative is likely to
be available for several years.
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鈥淲e are committed to working toward the 2007 deadline,鈥� says Gloria Patten,
deputy assistant secretary of the army, in charge of chemical demilitarisation.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not saying we鈥檙e going to make it.鈥� Army officials say it is riskier to
store the chemical weapons than burn them. But objectors point to two releases
in May of the nerve gas sarin at the army鈥檚 incinerator in Tooele,
Utah鈥攁pparently after some weapons got stuck in the plant鈥檚 input
chutes.
The two most promising alternatives to incineration start by cutting the
weapons up and stewing them in water at 40 掳C until most of the chemicals
decompose. This is effective for mustard and nerve agents, but tricky for the
propellants and explosives in the weapons, says Braun, some of which can
recombine and explode.
The chemical agents themselves are broken down into chemicals which could be
used to make more chemical weapons, and under the convention, these too must be
destroyed. One promising treatment is to use soil bacteria immobilised in a
foam. Astonishingly, these bacteria, which come from soil near army chemical
testing ranges, thrive on mustard gas. These are partnered with nematode worms
that eat surplus bacteria, reducing waste. So far, the technique works better
for mustard than for nerve gas. But Johnson says that with the right bugs, it
could work for nerve gas, and for PCBs and pesticides too.