Syrian chemical arms 'to be destroyed on US Navy ship'

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: BBC

The body charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons has confirmed some will be "neutralised" aboard a US Navy ship.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the US was contributing technology and financing.

The chemicals will be diluted to safer levels using a process called "hydrolysis".

The OPCW said 35 firms had submitted expressions of interest in destroying Syria's remaining chemical stockpiles.

Their suitability is being evaluated.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25167053

[MADem]

1. Well, a sealift command ship....with a civilian crew.

This one, I'm speculating...

http://navysite.de/akr/akr9679.htm

[SCVDem]

2. Making it on the cheap

Strap a few dozen afterburning jet engines to a barge at sea and inject the crap straight into the flaming exhaust.

Use old J-79 engines from the F-4 Phantom. Cheap on the surplus market.

The fuel flow at afterburner is 10 gal a second. This should support incinerating non nuclear WMDS in no time.

Thoughts?

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. hmmm - makes me curious

.
.
.

USA has a larger stockpile, and although they pledged to have theirs destroyed by 2012, now "intends" to have them destroyed by 2023.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Weapons_Convention

/snip/

United States

Date of Accession/Entry into force 29 April 1997
Declared Stockpile (Schedule 1) (tonnes) 31,500
% OPCW (verified destroyed) 90%[23]
(Date of Full destruction) 29 April 2012
Destruction deadline (intends by 2023)[37]

/snip/

Of the six United Nations Member States that are not parties to the treaty, two have signed but not yet ratified the treaty (Burma and Israel)

/snip/

In addition, several countries that are not members are suspected of having chemical weapons, especially Egypt, Israel, and North Korea.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

hmmmm - Israel right up there with NK?

Israel hasn't declared its nukes either . .

where's the outrage?

CC

[KoKo]

4. Are they going to burn them, dump them in ocean? What?

How does one destroy them at sea?

I've seen the reports on this but no discussion of HOW they will be destroyed.

Anyone know?

[Posteritatis]

5. It depends on the type of chemical

Most are incinerated. Some can just be diluted in water (or water plus something else like sodium hydroxide), resulting in waste products that can still be inconveniencing but can be themselves further treated (or even used directly in mundane applications). There's probably other methods as well, but the Syrian stockpile is pretty basic which probably means those older techniques will do the job.

The bigger issue in this case is probably the international-waters aspect, since nobody wants to host them on their own soil during the process.

[Posteritatis]

7. And looking at some of the articles, they're definitely doing the dilution method. (nt)

[SCVDem]

6. Burn baby burn!

Can you imagine how many Greenpeace vessels would show up if this crap were to be dumped?