KIEV, February 23 (AVN) - The scrapping of Ukraine's SS-24 solid fuel missiles and first stages of similar Russian missiles will take place at the Pavlograd mechanical plant in the Ukrainian Donetsk region, National Space Agency Director General Alexander Negoda told the Military News Agency on Friday.
The scrapping is planned to be completed in December 2001, Negoda said. This term is confirmed by a Russian-Ukrainian memorandum on co-operation in the sphere of the missile scrapping signed in the city of Dnepropetrovsk on February 12, 2001. Ukraine has 46 solid-fuel missiles and along with their scrapping the plant will participate in realising all current Russian-Ukrainian space projects and assemble engines for the Zenit rocket carrier which takes part in the Sea Launch international programme.
According to the plant's director Alexander Romanov, the most serious problem with the scrapping is the solid fuel extraction from disassembled missiles and its further re-procession at chemical enterprises also located in Pavlograd. The re-processed fuel is planned for use in the mining industry instead of traditional explosives.