Preparatory Commission for the                              PC-X/B/WP.14

Organisation for the Prohibition                              23 March 1995

of Chemical Weapons                                                   Original:   RUSSIAN/ENGLISH

Tenth Session

(3 - 7 April 1995)

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

THE ISSUE OF DECLARATION

OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS PRODUCTION FACILITIES

I.          Introduction

1.         In accordance with paragraph 1 (c) (ii) of Article III of the Convention, each State Party shall submit to the Organisation, not later than 30 days after the Convention enters into force for it, the declarations in which it shall:

            "Specify any chemical weapons production facility it has or has had under its ownership or possession or that is or has been located in any place under its jurisdiction or control at any time since 1 January 1946, in accordance with Part V, paragraph 1, of the Verification Annex, except for those facilities referred to in sub‑subparagraph (iii)."

2.         In accordance with paragraph 8 of Article II of the Convention:

            ""Chemical Weapons Production Facility":

(a)        Means any equipment, as well as any building housing such equipment, that was designed, constructed or used at any time since 1 January 1946:

(i)         As part of the stage in the production of chemicals ("final technological stage") where the material flows would contain, when the equipment is in operation:

(1)        Any chemical listed in Schedule 1 in the Annex on Chemicals; or

(2)        Any other chemical that has no use, above 1 tonne per year on the territory of a State Party or in any other place under the jurisdiction or control of a State Party, for purposes not prohibited under this Convention, but can be used for chemical weapons purposes;

or

(ii)        For filling chemical weapons, including, inter alia, the filling of chemicals listed in Schedule 1 into munitions, devices or bulk storage containers; the filling of chemicals into containers that form part of assembled binary munitions and devices or into chemical submunitions that form part of assembled unitary munitions and devices, and the loading of the containers and chemical submunitions into the respective munitions and devices;

(b)        Does not mean:

(i)         Any facility having a production capacity for synthesis of chemicals specified in subparagraph (a) (i) that is less than 1 tonne;

(ii)        Any facility in which a chemical specified in subparagraph (a) (i) is or was produced as an unavoidable by‑product of activities for purposes not prohibited under this Convention, provided that the chemical does not exceed 3 per cent of the total product and that the facility is subject to declaration and inspection under the Annex on Implementation and Verification (hereinafter referred to as "Verification Annex"); or

(iii)       The single small‑scale facility for production of chemicals listed in Schedule 1 for purposes not prohibited under this Convention as referred to in Part VI of the Verification Annex."

II.        Indicators of Chemical Weapons Production Facilities and Declaration Requirements

3.         In accordance with paragraph 8 (a) of Article II of the Convention "Chemical Weapons Production Facility" means:

-           any "final technological stage" equipment that, at any time since 1 January 1946, was designed, constructed or used as part of the stage in the production of any Schedule 1 chemicals or any other chemicals specified in paragraph 8 (a) (i) (2) of Article II of the Convention; or

-           any equipment that, at any time since 1 January 1946, was designed, constructed or used for filling chemical weapons; as well as

-           buildings housing such equipment at the time of declaration.

4.         Thus the presence of the equipment specified in paragraph 8 (a) of Article II is the key indicator of the chemical weapons production facility. As it follows from paragraph 8 (a) of Article II of the Convention, buildings as such which are not housing the "final technological stage" equipment or equipment for filling chemical weapons do not constitute chemical weapons production facilities.

III.       Chemical Weapons Production Facilities that Have Not Been Destroyed

5.         It follows from paragraphs 1-4 that any "final technological stage" equipment for the production of chemicals specified in paragraph 8 (a) of Article II or any equipment for filling chemical weapons that was designed, constructed or used since 1 January 1946 as well as any buildings housing such equipment at the time of declaration must be declared as chemical weapons production facilities,  including inter alia:

5.1       any "final technological stage" equipment for production of any chemicals, specified in paragraph 8 (a) (i) of Article II, regardless of the purposes of production of such chemicals with the production capacity above 1 tonne per year;

5.2       any equipment specified in paragraph 5 that has been used or modified before entry into force of the Convention for an activity not related to the production of chemical weapons (paragraph 1 (h) (iii) of Part V of the Verification Annex), but at the same time has been retained at the time of declaration;

5.3       any "final technological stage" equipment for the production by any method of mixture components of binary chemical weapons which have no use, above 1 tonne per year on the territory of a State Party or in any other place under the jurisdiction or control of a State Party for purposes not prohibited under the Convention as well as any equipment for filling such mixture components;

5.4       any equipment specified in paragraph 5 that was designed, constructed or used for the production or filling of chemical weapons prior to 1 January 1946 and exists at the time of declaration, regardless of the purposes for which it was retained or used since 1 January 1946.

6.         Thus any equipment specified in paragraph 5 as well as any buildings housing such equipment at the time of declaration fall under the definition of "chemical weapons production facility" and all the Convention provisions relevant to chemical weapons production facilities shall fully apply to such facilities (including declaration, verification and destruction).

IV.       Facilities, Destroyed before the Entry into Force of the Convention

7.         The Convention provides for cases where, before the Convention has entered into force for a given State Party, the State Party may have destroyed chemical weapons production facilities in any manner (paragraph 1 (h) (ii) of Part V of the Verification Annex). Such facilities may be destroyed as chemical weapons production facilities, using for these purposes the principles specified in paragraph 26 or 70 of Part V of the Verification Annex.

8.         In accordance with paragraph 1(c) (ii) of Article III of the Convention, declarations shall be submitted in regard to such destroyed facilities pursuant to the applicable subparagraphs of paragraph 1 of Part V of the Verification Annex, namely subparagraphs (a), (b), (d), (e), (f), (h) (i-ii).

9.         The Convention does not provide for any procedures and methods for verification of declarations in regard to such facilities (with the exception  of possibilities associated with the challenge inspection mechanism).

V.        Declaration of Facilities which Produce Schedule 1 Chemicals as Unavoidable By-Products

10.       Taking into account the potential risk to the object and purposes of the Convention posed by facilities, which produce or produced, as an unavoidable by-product, Schedule 1 chemicals, or other chemicals specified in paragraph 8 (a) (i) (2) of Article II, the Convention provides for such facilities to be assigned to a separate category.

11.       In accordance with paragraph 8 (b) (ii) of Article II of the Convention, any facilities which within the framework of activities for purposes not prohibited under the Convention produce or produced, as an unavoidable by-product, chemicals specified in paragraph 10, provided that the chemical does not exceed 3 per cent of the total product, shall be subject to declaration and inspection in accordance with the provisions of Part VII, VIII or IX of the Verification Annex depending on whether the product produced is a Schedule 2 or Schedule 3 chemical, or a discrete organic chemical.

12.       The declarations of facilities, referred to in paragraph 11, shall thus contain information on the chemical name of the by-product referred to in paragraph 10, and on the percentage of such chemical.

13.       In assessing the risk posed by such facilities in order to determine the frequency and intensity of inspections, the absolute amount of the by-product chemicals referred to in paragraph 10 which are formed at a given facility during one year, as well as the ease of their recovery on the basis of guidelines to be developed in the context of "low concentrations" of Schedule 2 and 3 chemicals shall be taken into account. For risk assessment purposes it would be important to provide information about possible technological process deviations leading to any increase in the concentration of such by-product chemicals above the 3 per cent level.

14.       It seems that if the facilities referred to in paragraph 11 are not subject to declaration and inspection in accordance with the Verification Annex, they shall be declared and verified separately so as not to fall under the definition of the chemical weapons production facility. It would be useful to develop additionally the procedures for declaration and inspection of such facilities within the framework of the relevant expert group.

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