Since the mid-20th century, the Kizner storage facilities have been holding 5,680 tonnes of chemical warfare agents, or 14.2 percent of their overall amount.
Arsenals of sarin, soman, VX-gases and viscous lewisite will be disposed of in two stages, as the Russian technology provides.
Tube-launched projectiles stuffed with poisonous substances have different volumes and calibers, which will require the strictest observance of safety and technology requirements.
The elimination process will be monitored by observers from the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a spokesman for the Russian federal agency for the safe storage and destruction of chemical weapons told Itar-Tass.
The choice of the date for launching Russia's last chemical weapons destruction facility was not accidental. Eleven yeara ago, on December 19, 2002, Russia's first such facility was commissioned in the settlement of Gorny in Saratov region under the Chemical Weapons Convention. On December 23, 2005, an aggregate of 1,142.2 tonnes of mustard gas, lewisite and yperite-lewisite mixtures from the Gorny storage facilities were
successfully disposed of. As a result, Russia's chemical arsenals were cut by 2.9 percent.
By now, Russia has destroyed more than 77.5 percent of its chemical warfare agents. The launch of the Kizner facility means that Russia's progarmme of chemical weapons destruction is nearing completion. To fulfill this programme, Russia already commissioned six facilities, namely the one in the settlement of Gorny, Saratov region, in the town of
Kambarka in the Republic of Udmurtia, the Leonidovka facility in the Penza region, the Maradykovsky facility in the Kirov region, Shchuchye in the Kurgan region, and Pochep in the Bryansk region. Works have been completed at the Gorny and Kambarka facilities.
These plants are being de-commissioned to be converted to turn out civilian products, which will provide jobs for the local population.
The plant in Kizner is the last but not least facility under the final stage of the federal chemical weapons destruction programme. Under this programme and in line with its international liabilities, Russia is to completely get rid of its chemical weapons arsenals by December 31, 2015.
TASS