Destroying chemical weapons at sea is one idea, watchdog says
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Destroying Syria’s stockpile of poison gas and nerve agents at sea is a possible alternative to finding a country willing to host the destruction, a spokesman for the global chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons aims to destroy 1,300 tonnes of Syrian toxic agents by mid-2014, but the plan was dealt a blow last week when Albania rejected a U.S. request to host destruction. Authorities in Belgium and Norway also have ruled out their countries as locations for the risky operation.
OPCW spokesman Christian Chartier said the alternative of destruction at sea, on a boat or floating rig, is a “feasible” possibility.
Chartier said, “All options are on the table.” No further details have been released.
Among mobile systems that could be put on a ship and sent to sea is one owned by the U.S. defence department. The Field Deployable Hydrolysis System is a transportable neutralization system that uses water, other chemicals and heat to change chemical-warfare material into compounds not usable as weapons.
Ralf Trapp, a Frenchbased international chemical weapons disarmament consultant and scientist, said chemical weapons have been transported by ship to remote locations in the past, including by the U.S. to the Pacific island of Johnston Atoll for destruction. But Trapp said he knew of no prior use of a boat or floating platform for on-board destruction of the lethal substances on the scale that would be required to dispose of Syria’s stocks.
Trapp said that using a seabased facility would have numerous advantages, including the ability to position it far from populated areas.
But he said there were many problems to be addressed first, including restrictions in the UN Convention on the Law of Sea intended to protect the marine environment, and how to transport the highly toxic cargo so it presents a minimal risk for sailors and other maritime traffic.