Chemical factory in Russia to be dismantled 

About 25 stock and production facilities in Russia must be dismantled before 2007 to comply with the UN convention.
Even though the production of chemical weapons ceased long ago at one of Russia’s most important factories, Chim Prom, the risk remains of finding residual VX nerve gas in dust and liquid in the equipment of the facility.

During the 1970s and 1980s a special section of the factory produced about 16,000 tons of VX – a nerve gas so dangerous that 0.3 mg is enough to kill an adult person. But now this is at a definitive end.

Under the UN convention on chemical weapons, the development, production, storage and use of such weapons is forbidden. The convention, which was ratified in 1997, requires that all chemical weapons be destroyed no later than 2007. In Russia, the destruction of about 25 chemical weapons storage depots and old production equipment is already getting under way.

Myths about the factory

This is the first time that an entire production facility is to be destroyed in Russia. COWI is responsible for risk assessment and taking soil samples, as well as preparing the environmental and health monitoring for the dismantling process at the factory at Novocheboksarsk, which is situated about 700 km east of Moscow.

COWI project director Torben Bruun Hansen explains: "By its nature, work at the factory was secret. Today no one knows exactly what went on there, and local myths surrounding the factory are abound.

To oversee the dismantling and monitoring procedures, parties ranging from the authorities to grass-roots movements have all become involved - making the job of coordinating the work extremely complicated."

Informing the Russians

Continues Torben Bruun Hansen: "One of the challenges facing us is to inform the Russian people what destroying the facility entails. This is a sensitive issue, where we must address the matter factually yet at the same time avoid causing unnecessary concern among local residents."

The actual destruction of the facility will commence in August. The plant used in the production of nerve gas will be incinerated in three large ovens, where the high temperatures will break down any gas residues in the concrete, iron and cleansing liquids left over from that era. The whole process will result in about 20,000 tons of solid waste.

By: Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.com
Published: 25.05.2004


Facts about the project  
The project – under the aegis of the EU's TACIS programme – is a collaborative effort between COWI, Denmark’s National Environmental Research Institute, Bispebjerg Hospital in Denmark and the German branch of the safety firm Dynasafe.

As part of the project, COWI is helping to improve existing monitoring programmes so that the Russians themselves will be in a better position to measure residues of VX in water, soil and air. In addition, help is being provided to the Russian authorities to establish an information strategy and a system for communicating information about the dismantling of the facility to the local population.