Fundamental Chemistry of Chemical Warfare Agents and Interrelationships in Technologies

Abstract

Several countries possess vast stocks of chemical warfare agents, some even left over from World War I. There are several reports that large amounts of German munitions were dumped into the Baltic Sea at the end of World War II. More recently, chemical warfare agents and munitions in Iraq have been ordered to be destroyed by the United Nations. Most countries that possess CW agents are committed to destruction of them. The newly signed Chemical Weapons Convention requires destruction of these weapons within ten years. Such a rapid destruction of national stocks of chemical weapons is not an easy problem. Although in the United States the Army in 1982 decided to choose incineration as the destruction technology, it is considered now as very expensive, not suitable for every type of chemical munitions and hazardous for operating personnel or to civilian populations. Therefore. there is a considerable interest in other ways and technologies, by means of which the CW agents can be destroyed, as well as in a fundamental research on basic features of chemical warfare agents.