MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The United States has taken interest in the Russian technology of chemical weapons destruction, Director General of the Russian Ammunition Agency Zinovy Pak said on Thursday.
"Russian scientists have worked out a technology of lewisite and yperite destruction, which is the safest one at the moment," Pak told Interfax-Military News Agency. The United States has taken interest in the technology; it is planning to use the Russian developments for destruction of its own lewisite and yperite stocks amounting to some 10 tonnes, he said.
Changes and additions made by the Russian Ammunition Agency during the development of the scrapping facility in the town of Gorny in the Saratov region made it possible to reduce the number of dangerous operations four times, the director stressed.
Russia is planning to complete pre-launch work at the facility and start scrapping lewisite and yperite stocks in Gorny in December 2002. Under international obligations, it is to scrap one percent (400 tonnes) of chemical weapons by April 2003. The facility in Gorny is to destroy 1,142 tonnes of poisonous substances before 2005.