War Waste

The US Navy chemical factory ship will in the coming days proceed into the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay heading towards the North sea.

The Cape Ray is loaded with 6000 tons of chemical aqueous and solid waste issued from the neutralization in the Mediterranean Sea of 560 tons of precursors of the Syrian chemical weapons.

The Cape Ray mission was carried out from July 9th to August 18th. It consisted in diluting precursors of sarin (540t) and of sulfur mustard agent (20t) pulled out of the Syrian territory. Only laconic communiqués from the Pentagon have dotted this sea run neutralization. No circumstantial account of weather conditions, ship spottings, technical uncertainties, air release has been published.

According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) the most challenging phase towards the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons has just ended with the removal of the last declared precursors and other chemicals from Syrian soil. This first step was constantly delayed in spite of a good knowledge of the associated risks and the participation by numerous State Parties of the OPCW Convention.

However, the next step will enter into unknown territory. The plan is to neutralise 20 metric tonnes of mustard agent and 540 metric tonnes of sarin precursor at sea.

Since the beginning of the year two vessels, loaded with agents for chemical weapons, have been rocking and rolling in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. There exact location is confidential. The Ark Futura is a 180 meter long RoRo ship operating under the Danish flag. The crew is multinational. The Taiko is a 262 meter long RoRo ship operating under the Norway International flag. In the case of a collision or fire this type of vessel, which can be likened to a floating parking lot, is very vulnerable and will sink quickly.

The U.S. Cape Ray is heading towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Its mission is to destroy onboard the so-called priority one substances from Syrian chemical weapons at sea in international waters. For the moment the Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (FDHS) has only been tested, at sea… with water. The FDHS was constructed to be operated on land. Robin des Bois has already voiced opposition to this option favoured by the OPCW and the United States (See information note n°1 and n°2).

The Cape Ray scenario has been put in place to “avoid having to put these materials on somebody’s territory where you have to deal with all the political and environmental conditions associated with doing that under local law” as Mr. Frank Kendall the US. Under Secretary of Defence said early January. However, this option of not neutralising chemical weapons in somebody’s back yard will actually take place in everybody’s back yard. The high seas are the common heritage of mankind.

Neutralizing Syrian chemical weapons on board the Cape Ray, a cargo ship converted into an industrial platform, situated in international waters will make it possible to avoid national regulations.

This worldwide first will transform the high seas into a free zone, free from any democratic controls and environmental and social constraints. The OPCW and the United States state that 500 tonnes of Syrian’s priority substances will be treated at sea in a couple of weeks whereas the final destruction of America’s chemical weapons will not be finished before 2023. On land, the United States is hoping to treat 3,100 tonnes in 10 years. At sea, they are convinced that they can treat 500 tonnes within 4 weeks.

Update January 3, 2014 – 10:15 AM

Treatment of Syrian chemical substances onboard the American ship Cape Ray is a default solution. It follows Northern European countries’ refusal to directly dispose of the precursor chemical ammunition in specialized facilities (*). This operation on the high seas would install industrialization of the world’s oceans.

Update

October 14, 2013 : a ministerial decree permits ASTRIUM to build SECOIA at Mailly-le-Camp.

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For 13 years, Robin des Bois has been working on the war waste issue including chemical weapons. Considering the current state of development it seems useful to review the doctrine and the actual practice of France in relation to the international Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction known as the Chemical Weapons Convention. The majority of chemical weapons to be destroyed on French territory were made with phosgene and chloropicrin, mustard gas and chlorobenzene, zinc tetrachloride, arsenic and cyanide.

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