Pentagon’s Syrian weapons plan involves a ship, two portable treatment plants and less than 90 days

Washington // A ship, two portable treatment plants and less than 90 days: that is the Pentagon plan to destroy Syria’s most dangerous chemical weapons.

After Albania refused to destroy the lethal “priority 1” chemical agents — including mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve gas — on its soil, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) turned to the United States.

The US proposal aims to take the process off land altogether and into international waters.

The “priority 1” chemical agents, which must be destroyed by April 2014, are on the order of “hundreds of tonnes” — or around “150 shipping containers” — according to a senior US defence official.

It is a subset of the total 1,290 tonnes of chemical weapons, ingredients and precursors Damascus had declared as part of the international agreement brokered by the United States and Russia.

The OPCW said the Syrian army would bring containers to the Latakia port, where they will be loaded on to a Scandinavian ship.

Once at the next port, the containers will be transferred over the course of 48 hours to the Cape Ray, which would likely conduct its neutralisation operations in international waters, according to the Pentagon official.

The US has supplied nearly 3,000 container drums, loading, transportation, and decontamination equipment. Washington also provided GPS locators that let authorities track the chemicals. Russia offered large capacity and armoured lorries, water tanks, and other logistical supplies.

On the Cape Ray, the US defence department will use Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems — portable treatment plants capable of “neutralising” the most dangerous Syrian chemical agents.

These portable units, developed by the Pentagon earlier this year, are installed inside an enclosure tent that has special filtration systems aimed at minimising any risk of a leak.

Italy has agreed to let Scandinavian ships use one of its ports — it has not yet said which port — to transfer the most toxic chemicals to the Cape Ray, a 213-metre ship owned by the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration.

They will be operated by about 60 civilian defence employees, part of a crew of around 100 people on board the ship.

Hydrolysis involves breaking down a lethal chemical agent with hot water and bleach. The end result, the Pentagon official explained, is “a very low-level hazardous waste that is very common in industry and it’s transported every day on high seas”.

“Chemicals are 99.9 per cent destroyed,” he said, in a process that would take between 45 and 90 days.

“This is a proven technology. The chemicals and their reaction are very well understood; it’s safe, environmentally sound,” the official said, emphasising that “absolutely nothing will be dumped at sea”.

“The DOD has decades of experience in the chemical demilitarisation business,” he said. The US is in the process of destroying its own arsenal built up during the Cold War and has helped Russia, Albania and Libya get rid of their weapons as well.

The Pentagon, which said this was a “low-risk” operation, hasn’t given details on security measures that would likely be installed around the Cape Ray during the operation.

The inert by-product from the hydrolysis would be brought to a commercial waste treatment facility, along with Syria’s other chemical agents, for which the OPCW has launched an appeal to the private sector.

The OPCW has opened a fund to pay for the destruction mission. At the moment it contains US$13.47 million (Dh49.47m) but the organisation has appealed for more funds.

Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Associated Press