NEW Chiral Developmental Products

From Daiso Co.

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(fl)/(S)-

(fl)/(S)-

(fl)/(S)-

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(fl)/(S)-

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J DAISO CO., LTD. CIRCLE 47 ON READER SERVICE CARD

2 8 OCTOBER 20, 1997 C&EN

U.S. chemical arms sites inspected The U.S. remains technically out of com­pliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it ratified on April 24. But this state of affairs hasn't stopped the international group implementing the treaty from conducting inspections at U.S. military installations.

As it was required to do under the trea­ty, the U.S. on May 29 reported its chemi­cal-weapons-related military facilities to The Hague-based Organization for the Pro­hibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The U.S. was also required, but unable, to declare its civilian chemical facilities be­cause the legal and regulatory framework for implementing the treaty domestically was not then—and is not yet—in place. Without implementing legisla- 8 tion, the Commerce Department a cannot issue regulations requiring I commercial chemical companies to submit data on treaty-listed chemi­cals they make, use, or store.

The Senate has passed the neces­sary legislation, the House has not. The legislation is bottled up in the House Committee on International Relations, and the spokesman for committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), says, "There is no action scheduled [on the bill] in the committee as we speak."

Once Congress passes the legisla­tion, the Commerce Department will issue appropriate regulations. A government official estimates that af­ter the bill becomes law it will take the U.S. about six to nine months to amass the data on commercial facili­ties it will declare to OPCW.

In mid-November, the treaty re­quires that the U.S.—and all other rat­ifying countries—submit to OPCW its anticipated treaty-related activities for the next calendar year. U.S. officials expect to miss this deadline—and the next one, also. In March 1998, the treaty requires the U.S to declare actu­al activities during 1997 to OPCW.

Despite missed deadlines, OPCW moves ahead. Since July, its inspection teams have visited the U.S. frequently. And 15 inspectors are always present at the U.S.'s two operating destruction facil­ities on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and at Tooele, Utah.

By the end of September, international inspectors had conducted 21 inspections at declared U.S. military facilities. All seven

declared production facilities had been in­spected, as had all five destruction facili­ties. Nine storage facilities have already been inspected, and the remaining three are now being, or will shortly be, inspected.

With the completion of the storage fa­cility inspections, the U.S. will have ful­filled its treaty obligation for baseline in­spections of its declared military facilities. These facilities will continue to be inspect­ed by OPCW on a routine schedule to en­sure that no illicit activity occurs. They also can be subjected to challenge inspec­tions if another ratifying country suspects illegal activity and asks OPCW to verify compliance with the treaty.

Some problems have cropped up dur­ing the baseline inspections of the mili­tary facilities, but they have "all been penny ante kind of stuff," a U.S. official

International inspectors combed U.S. destruction facilities at Johnston Atoll (top) and Tooele, Utah.

tells C&EN. "By and large, the regime is working," the official declares.

The U.S. was prepared for the rapid on­slaught of baseline inspections of its mili­tary facilities, says Mark Harmon, spokes­man for the U.S. Onsite Inspection Agen­cy, whose personnel escort OPCW inspectors. He says the U.S. "is preparing for the inspections of civilian sites, and I'm sure everything will go well."

Lois Ember

g o v e r n m e n t