Washington: The United States has successfully destroyed its last stockpile of chemical weapons in a bid to create a world ‘free from the horrors of chemical weapons’. US President Joe Biden announced on Friday that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile—bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons, as per an official release by the White House. Biden added that successive administrations have determined that these weapons should never again be developed or deployed, and this accomplishment not only makes good on our long-standing commitment under the Chemical Weapons Convention, it marks the first time an international body has verified destruction of an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction.
“I am grateful to the thousands of Americans who gave their time and talents to this noble and challenging mission for more than three decades,” he further said. The President said that for over 30 years, the United States worked tirelessly to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to Twitter to make the announcement. “The United States has successfully completed destruction of our chemical weapons stockpile, marking a major step forward under the Chemical Weapons Convention,” he said.
US Department of Defense (DoD) said that as mandated by Congress in 1986, destruction of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, which at one time comprised more than 30,000 tons of chemical warfare agents in explosively configured weapons and bulk containers, began in 1990 on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. The U.S. Army went on to successfully complete destruction of weapons at six more sites across the continental U.S. by 2012 at installations in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon and Utah, it added.
The DoD further said that while those stockpiles were under destruction, additional legislation required the Defense Department to assess and demonstrate alternative technologies to destroy chemical weapons by means other than incineration. It said that successful implementation of alternative technologies resulted in the safe destruction of the remaining chemical weapons stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.
Detailing about the destruction of the chemical weapons, the Department of Defense said that a team of companies in Colorado led by Bechtel National, Inc. completed the destruction of more than 780,000 mustard agent-filled projectiles at U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot on June 22. Destruction operations in Pueblo began in March 2015, with more than 2,613 U.S. tons of chemical agents destroyed using a neutralization method followed by biotreatment and explosive destruction technologies, it further said.
“The final munition was destroyed July 7 in Kentucky by a joint-venture team led by Bechtel National, Inc. and Parsons Corporation, using neutralization and explosive destruction technologies to eliminate more than 100,000 mustard agent and nerve agent-filled projectiles and nerve agent-filled rockets. Destruction operations at the Blue Grass Army Depot began in June 2019, with more than 523 U.S. tons of chemical agents safely destroyed,” the statement further read.
While making the announcement, Biden urged Russia nad Syria to comply with Chemical Weapons Convention and admit their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit ‘brazen atrocities and attacks’.
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