SARATOV, Volga Region. Aug 13 (Interfax-AVN) - A state commission accepting chemical weapons scrapping facilities has got down to work in the town of Gorny in the Saratov region, the region's governor Dmitry Ayatskov told reporters on Tuesday.
The commission "is to assess the plant's readiness and make a decision on the term of putting in operation the facility's first section before August 20," Ayatskov said.
According to him, the installation is unlikely to be commissioned in full before the end of the year, as the lewisite processing line is not yet completed.
"Among the most pressing unsolved problems is processing of recreation masses that remain after the destruction of poisonous substances," the governor stressed.
"Absolute safety of the chemical weapons destruction process should be the main condition of the installation's launching," he said.
The installation so far has some defects that are being fixed, Ayatskov added.
The facility in Gorny keeps 2.9 percent of Russia's chemical weapons stocks. Yperite and lewisite, both poisonous agents of Category One, will be destroyed here.
The federal purpose-oriented program of chemical weapons destruction envisages the scrapping of 400t of poisonous substances by 2003, 20 percent of weapons stocks by 2007 and 45 percent of weapons stocks by 2008. Russia is to get rid of all of its chemical weapons before April 29, 2012.