Kizner Chemical Weapons Destruction Plant. Complete disarmament
A chemical weapons destruction plant has opened in Udmurtia, which is considered the best in the world in terms of equipment. Experts plan to dispose of more than two million artillery shells large caliber with toxic substances left over from the times Soviet Union. This is the seventh and last such facility, which was built under the federal target program.
The first ammunition is already waiting for its turn on the assembly line. At the central control center you can see everything that happens in the chemical weapons disposal workshops. New complex in the Udmurt village of Kizner, he is completing a federal program to destroy stockpiles of toxic substances.
Boss Federal Administration By safe storage and the destruction of chemical weapons Valery Kapashin says: “There are reserves here of about 5.5 thousand tons of toxic substances. The caliber of the shells is 122 mm. The shells are filled with the toxic substance sarin. The reserves of sarin are the largest.”
Russia is one of the initiators of signing the international convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons. More than forty thousand tons toxic substances were still stored in warehouses in different regions countries. Some ammunition was released during the Great Patriotic War, their expiration date has long expired.
It was decided to build complexes for the destruction of chemical weapons next to each of the seven arsenals. Today, most of the reserves have already been liquidated.
The head of the 240 mm rocket. The ammunition weighs about forty kilograms and contains the dangerous chemical sarin. The process of destroying chemical weapons at the enterprise is fully automated. The process is controlled in a special hardware room. It takes about a day to dispose of one ammunition.
Victor Kholstov, deputy head Federal agency in industry, explains: “The toxic substance is destroyed in one stage: the toxic substance is extracted and immediately detoxification occurs - a decrease in the activity of the toxic substance.”
At the final stage, the empty shells are deformed under a special press. The entire destruction process is carried out under the supervision of foreign specialists from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Underway strict control.
"Each state determines its capabilities and destruction priorities. Our priorities are lined up, voiced, and we have no other alternative than the destruction of chemical weapons in as soon as possible" - says Victor Kholstov.
The company is under strict environmental control. Air samples are taken three times a day and a mobile laboratory operates. also in different corners The complex has so-called bioindicators - arctic foxes, mice and minks react better than any devices to harmful substances. Animals are very sensitive to changes in the environment.
The company guarantees the safety of its workers, as well as local population. Residents of Kizner say that with the advent of the complex, life in the village has changed. Behind Last year New schools, a community center were built here, and the hospital was modernized.
“When we arrived here, the infrastructure here was not very developed. We took our eldest child, he is now 9 years old, to kindergarten by bus. And now there is a kindergarten literally under our windows,” Natalya Labutina, a resident of the village of Kizner, is pleased.
In Russia, all stockpiles of chemical weapons must be destroyed by 2015, and the enterprises themselves must be closed. But local authorities We are confident that all complexes will be converted for military or civilian needs.
KIZNER (Udmurtia) - September 27, RIA Novosti. The last kilogram of chemical weapons was destroyed in Russia at the Kizner facility in Udmurtia. Thus, Russia has fully fulfilled its obligations to international convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction.
The small village of Kizner, lost in the picturesque forests of Udmurtia, would hardly ever receive world fame. But on Wednesday, the last kilogram of Russia's once 40,000-ton stockpile of chemical warfare agents was solemnly destroyed. The event attracted the attention of, among other things, foreigners - representatives of the countries participating in the Convention. The destruction ceremony was attended by representatives of the European Union, the USA, and Canada.
No chemical weapons
The command to destroy the country's last stockpiles of chemical weapons was given by President Vladimir Putin during a teleconference with Udmurtia.
The destruction process is fully automated; the destruction of the last stockpiles of chemical weapons occurs without human intervention. Therefore, journalists, along with the rest of the ceremony participants, were able to watch the process from beginning to end on a special screen.
A batch of two artillery chemical ammunition was supplied to the so-called demilitarization line - this is a closed production line located under low blood pressure. Next, each shell was drilled, the toxic substance was evacuated from them, which was sent into the reactor and chemically neutralized. The ammunition itself is then washed twice and baked in an oven at temperatures up to 1000 degrees. After this, the shells were checked for the presence of residues chemical substance, cooled and prepared for export.
A few minutes later, and the head of the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons, Colonel General Valery Kapashin, reported to the President about the successful completion of the process.
Historical event
“Today we have a very important, one might say, historical event, because today the last chemical munition from the Russian chemical weapons arsenals will be eliminated,” Putin said during a teleconference with Udmurtia.
“Without any unnecessary pathos, we can say that this is indeed a historical event, bearing in mind the huge volume of the arsenal that we inherited from Soviet times,” the president added.
According to him, the arsenal of chemical weapons that Russia once had “could, according to experts, destroy all life on Earth several times over.”
"Russia strictly fulfills its international obligations, including in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons mass destruction. We understand well the dangers and risks that can cause a resumption of the arms race and attempts to break strategic parity", Putin said.
The President noted that Moscow is always open “for meaningful dialogue on issues global security, strengthening confidence-building measures."
“We hope that Russia’s efforts to eliminate chemical weapons will serve as an example for other countries,” he added.
The scale of what is happening was also emphasized by a representative of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), who came to Kizner to witness the liquidation of the last stockpile of chemical weapons in Russia.
Expert on the elimination of chemical weapons in Russia: maybe the US can help us now?The OPCW has confirmed the complete destruction of chemical weapons in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the completion of the process historical event. Expert Igor Nikulin, speaking on Sputnik radio, noted that not only Russia has such obligations."It's really historical milestone for Russia, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and everything international community"said Hamid Rao, Deputy Director General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat.
According to him, this joint success is another contribution to strengthening the provisions of the Convention and “is a confirmation of its effectiveness in our common path to the destruction of chemical weapons and our working together for a world free of chemical weapons."
“I’m proud that we completed (the destruction), that we did it three years earlier,” Colonel-General Valery Kapashin, head of the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons, told reporters. “Why did we complete it three years earlier? Work experience and improving technology. At the same time, we saved more than 2 billion rubles."
Power needs to be used
Now it is planned to launch the production of gunpowder at the Kizner facility.
“The Kizner facility, where the last stock of chemical arsenal was destroyed today, we expect to use for the production of gunpowder and explosives. At the same time, we are ready to close the gunpowder plant in the center of Kazan, transferring all these competencies to absolutely new site", the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov reported to the president immediately after the teleconference with Udmurtia.
According to the presidential envoy in Privolzhsky federal district Mikhail Babich, other options for using the facility’s capacity are being considered.
“It will take about three to four more years to eliminate the consequences of the destruction of chemical weapons: to sanitize the territory, to destroy those elements of equipment that were directly involved in the process of destroying chemical weapons. And in parallel, work will be carried out to prepare investment project, concession agreement, if required,” Babich said.
According to him, the popularity of chemical weapons destruction facilities is now growing, and more and more more companies, which offer various options for their use.
“For the entire period of work, not a single emergency situation. Both this facility and the other six have the highest safety requirements. This is also a guarantee that these objects can be involved in economic turnover and used in the future in national economy", Babich said.
He noted that if at least something was violated or did not comply sanitary requirements security, the use of the facilities would become impossible.
"People with unique competencies work here. This (destruction of chemical weapons - ed.) is technological difficult process. I really hope that those personnel, those people who work here will develop some new ones in the future economic projects", the head of Udmurtia Alexander Brechalov told reporters.
"We are interested in this unique complex(the Kizner chemical weapons destruction facility - ed.) to be used in the economy of Udmurtia, in the economy of the country. There is interest (among investors - ed.). And now we will, with the help of Mikhail Babich and Denis Manturov, negotiate on the further use of the facilities,” Brechalov added.
In Kizner, Udmurtia, the last drop of chemical warfare agents stored on the territory of our country was destroyed. The complete and safe destruction of chemical weapons by Russia has been officially recorded international organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which issued the relevant certificates.
The liquidation took place at the special industrial facility 1208 for the safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons “Kizner”. The 96th Arsenal was located here, which was first part of the storage bases of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, then the NBC Defense Forces, and from December 1, 2000, the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons.
At the facility, 5.7 thousand tons of toxic substances were stored and subject to destruction - about 14.2% of all chemical weapons stocks in Russia. Of these, 98% were chemical warfare agents with a nerve-paralytic effect, and 2% were vesicants.
The last ammunition - artillery shell, equipped with the chemical warfare agent VX, began the path to its complete disposal in a special well-protected technical room. The whole process could be watched on a large television screen. It was fully automated and took place in the following sequence.
Through the open receiving gate of the deloading unit, the projectile was fed to the position of the opening unit. Next, a hole was drilled into the ammunition body using a special drill. After drilling, the ammunition was moved to a position where a tilting evacuation device was installed on the hole. At this position, the toxic substance was evacuated, for which the ammunition was rotated around its axis with the hole down. The chemical agent from the ammunition was transferred through a pipeline into one of the detoxification reactors. The evacuation operation was carried out due to the vacuum created in these reactors. Upon completion of the drainage of the toxic substance, the ammunition body was returned to initial position, in which it was filled with a degassing reagent.
Immediately after filling the ammunition with the reagent, the housing was again turned with the hole down and, after a short pause, returned to its original position. A similar operation was performed twice, and then, after the next rotation of the housing with the hole down, the contents of the ammunition from the disarming unit were evacuated into the detoxification reactor.
After completing the above operations, the chemical munition is considered unloaded.
Next, the resulting reaction mass is sent through the pipeline for thermal neutralization. The emptied ammunition body goes to the degassing position, followed by thermal neutralization in a heat treatment unit. Subsequently, irreversible deformation of the thermally neutralized body is carried out, after which it will be used as a raw material for metal processing enterprises.
Despite all its apparent simplicity, this process has become Russian know-how - a real breakthrough in the creation of technologies for the safe destruction of chemical weapons. In the United States, they came to a similar method of disinfecting their chemical ammunition much later. And the Americans, according to their own words, will be able to completely eliminate their chemical weapons only by 2023.
A distinctive feature of the domestic technologies used in Russia for the destruction of chemical warfare agents is their two-stage nature. At the first stage, the agent was exposed to a special reagent; if it was a toxic substance of the V-X type, as in this case, then the reagent was added directly to the ammunition. Sarin and soman were mixed with the reagent in a special reactor. After undergoing the neutralization reaction (1-2 months), the reaction masses were removed and subjected to the second stage of detoxification - exposure high temperatures(up to 1200 C). Received in end result dry salts have III - IV hazard classes (like mineral fertilizers or household chemical products). They are stored in hydrophobic containers in specially created and guarded landfills. It was this technology that allowed our country to completely and without any serious emergencies destroy chemical weapon earlier than it was done in the USA.
Since the late 1940s, the village of Kizner has housed one of the largest arsenals of chemical weapons. To ensure safety, the shells were stored without fuses and explosive charges in a separate technical area with total area about 600 hectares in above-ground storage facilities, which were equipped technical means security and fire alarms.
In 2007, the Main State Expertise of Russia decided to build an industrial facility for the destruction of chemical munitions in the immediate vicinity of the arsenal and four kilometers from the northeastern outskirts of the regional center - the village of Kizner. It is noteworthy that the industrial facility for the safe destruction of chemical munitions in Kizner was built without foreign aid, at the expense of the state budget. Although, within the framework of international obligations, assistance from various states was provided at a number of other facilities.
On December 19, 2013, the first launch complex of the Kizner chemical weapons storage and destruction facility was put into operation. During testing of equipment in real environments in December 2013, 1,470 ammunition were destroyed rocket artillery equipped with sarin (4.46 tons of toxic substance). On April 1, 2014, the facility in the village of Kizner reached its design capacity and began operating as usual around the clock.
On March 25, 2017, the last drop of soman was destroyed at the Kizner facility. On June 13, 2017, sarin destruction was completely completed. The destruction of the most dangerous chemical warfare agents such as VX began on June 19, 2017 and ended on September 27, 2017.
Tens of thousands of people, many scientific, production and construction organizations worked on the destruction of chemical weapons in Russia. However, even with uninterrupted financial support - and there were serious failures - it is unlikely that everything would have worked out if not for the head of the Federal Directorate for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons, Colonel General Valery Petrovich Kapashin. Everyone who was involved in the process unanimously says that only his amazing leadership talent ensured the coordinated and rhythmic work of the most complex technological chain of chemical weapons destruction. All fifteen years, while the construction of facilities and industrial liquidation chemical weapons, he practically did not sleep and worked seven days a week. He and the team subordinate to him did the impossible. The Americans, in any case, were unable to do this. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Colonel General V.P. Kapashin a real hero Russia.
At Kapashin’s insistence, and this is very important, during the creation and subsequent operation of Russian facilities for the destruction of chemical weapons, security became the main requirement. To carry out permanent environmental monitoring and medical control, the development and installation of special equipment, sensors, sampling and analysis of samples, the creation of the most modern workshops for the disposal of solid, liquid and gaseous waste, the deployment of public warning systems in case of emergency situations, and the preparation of evacuation plans for the population, up to seventy percent of the allocated funds were spent. As a result, Russian chemical weapons disposal facilities turned out to be one of the safest enterprises, with virtually no pollution. environment- and not only in our country, but throughout the world.
By the beginning of the destruction of chemical weapons on the territory of our country, 40,000 tons of various chemical warfare agents were stored in seven arsenals - from ancient mustard gas to the most modern and poisonous V-X.
The process of destroying chemical weapons stockpiles in our country was divided into four stages.
In April 2003, at the end of the first stage of the federal target program “Destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles in Russian Federation“400 tons of toxic substances were destroyed.
In April 2007, 8,000 tons of chemical agents were destroyed - more than 20% of the reserves, as provided for by the obligations under stage II.
In November 2009 it was implemented Stage III- 18,000 tons of chemical agents were destroyed, or more than 45% of the reserves.
It was planned to complete the fourth stage and completely destroy chemical weapons in our country at the end next year. However, on September 27, 2017 - a year ahead of schedule - IV was successfully completed The final stage Convention obligations, all chemical weapons stockpiles of the Russian Federation were destroyed - 40,000 tons of chemical agents.
MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/. Pharmaceutical and chemical production, the production of gunpowder and propellant charges - such projects are proposed to be implemented by investors at seven special factories where chemical weapons accumulated in Russia were destroyed and the last of which got rid of chemical ammunition the day before.
The last ammunition was destroyed on September 27 at a special facility in the village of Kizner in Udmurtia; the command for destruction was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin via teleconference, who called it a historical event.
“The Russian Federation has accumulated the largest volume - 40 thousand tons of chemical weapons out of 70, and today we completed this work. Symbolically, today’s event coincided with the year the convention on the destruction of chemical weapons and the establishment of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons came into force.” , - this is how the head of the State Commission for chemical disarmament, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District (VFD) Mikhail Babich.
Destroyed ahead of schedule and without accidents
According to Babich, international obligations ordered Russia to destroy chemical munitions located on its territory by 2020.
"Through the efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the FSB of Russia, personnel Federal Administration for the Safe Storage and Destruction of Chemical Weapons this task has been completed for three years ahead of schedule, installed international agreements. Of the more than 70 thousand tons of chemical weapons available in the world, 40 thousand tons were in Russia and 28 thousand tons in the United States. However, despite the significantly larger volume of chemical weapons, we completed the work 6 years earlier than our plans American colleagues", Babich said.
According to the press service of the embassy in the Volga Federal District, the federal target program“Destruction of stockpiles of chemical weapons in the Russian Federation” was adopted in 1996, a year later the State Duma approved a convention on the destruction of chemical weapons, and in 2002 the first Russian object on the elimination of chemical weapons - "Gorny" in Saratov region. In 2006-2013 six more special facilities for the destruction of chemical munitions appeared: “Kambarka” and “Kizner” in Udmurtia, “Maradykovsky” in Kirov region, "Leonidovka" in Penza region, "Pike" in Kurgan region and "Pochep" in the Bryansk region.
“All these years, we and the international community have been looking for a solution, and at the time of the creation of these weapons, the technologies did not exist. It is important to note that Russian scientists and Russian engineers created these technologies, created this equipment and trained competent specialists who correspond to to the highest levels in accordance with all safety requirements, both for us and for the environment, they did not allow a single emergency situation and today completed the process of destroying chemical weapons,” Babich said.
He noted that during the entire period of work, no requirements for public safety were violated at any facility; there were no violations in technologies that could lead to serious consequences. “All facilities have the highest safety requirements, and this suggests that all these facilities can be easily involved in economic turnover and used in the future,” he added.
Life around special objects
In the six regions where special facilities for the destruction of chemical weapons were located, other facilities appeared during the implementation of the program - social infrastructure was built within the framework of the same program. According to Babich, 11.5 billion rubles were allocated for this construction, in accordance with the instructions of the Russian President.
“This made it possible to build more than 400 residential buildings, about 20 schools and kindergartens, put into operation 14 hospitals, three sports complex, to lay 160 km of roads, 640 km of gas pipelines, 240 km of water supply networks,” Babich noted.
According to the head of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, the two regions of the republic, where chemical weapons destruction facilities are located, compare favorably with neighboring territories in terms of the development of social infrastructure.
“Of course, this project is unique and will go down in history not only because chemical weapons were destroyed on Russian territory, but, in fact, it gave a new breath to the Kambarsky and Kiznersky districts. You know that significant funds were spent on social infrastructure, roads, gas, water, and the Kiznersky district and Kambarsky district in this sense compare favorably with some territories of Udmurtia. Therefore, it is within our power, we are interested in this, of course, to use this unique complex in the economy of Udmurtia, in the economy of the country.<...>We will now conduct negotiations with the help of Mikhail Babich and Denis Manturov (head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation - TASS note) on the further use of the facilities,” Brechalov said.
Investment proposals
Further use of the facilities is in the hands of investors, from whom proposals are already being received to implement projects based on all seven chemical disarmament facilities. For example, the issue of moving the Kazan Powder Plant to Udmurt village Kizner. As Babich noted, if anything had been violated at these facilities, it would have been impossible to use them.
“One of the options is to move the gunpowder plant from Kazan here (to Kizner - TASS note). Now this plant is located in the center of Kazan, this is not the only option, but the main one<...>This requires additional calculations, additional work is required, and if we manage to do this, then this will be one of the options,” he said.
In any case, it will take time to put objects in order before implementing investment projects. Despite this, Babich says, the popularity of the objects is growing, and companies are offering their business projects. “This includes pharmaceuticals, chemical production, and many other options,” he noted.
“As for the timing of the involvement of objects in the economic flow, each object has its own deadlines. Since this object [Kizner] is the last, it will take about 3-4 more years to eliminate the consequences, to sanitize the territory, to destroy those elements of equipment who participated in the process of destruction of chemical weapons. And from now on, we will simultaneously work to conclude a concession agreement, which will be required in order to hand over this facility to investors on the same day,” Babich said.
Destroyed danger in numbers
As previously reported, the total volume of destroyed chemical weapons stockpiles on the territory of the Russian Federation amounted to 39 thousand 967 tons of toxic substances. In total, 4 million 352 thousand 33 chemical ammunition, 107 large-capacity tanks and 927 containers with toxic substances sarin, soman, vi-x, mustard gas and lewisite. Thus, after the destruction of the last ammunition, Russia fully fulfilled the obligations established Geneva Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction dated September 3, 1992.
It was also previously reported that in 2018 it is planned to carry out work “on bituminizing reaction masses and processing industrial waste formed from the destruction of lewisite,” and starting from 2019, work will be carried out to eliminate the consequences of the destruction of chemical weapons. The volume of budgetary funding for the program is 288.9 billion rubles. Additional source The program was financed by international technical assistance in the amount of 32.37 billion rubles.