Hi LindyBill; Re: "Neither. You could store Mustard gas in shells, you can't store the chemicals used today."
(1) You haven't provided a whit of evidence for your outrageous claim. How about a link?
(2) The vast majority of Iraq's gas production was mustard gas. See #reply-18459813 for the link.
(3) The second largest gas in Iraq's production was Sarin, which can be stored in artillery shells. For example, see:
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According to intelligence estimates, Slobodan Milosevic and the Yugoslav Army have at least 4,800 howitzer shells filled with sarin and 1,000 of them filled with mustard gas. Each of those shells contains 1.8 liters of dangerous poisonous gas!
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fas.org
Re: "They will corrode the steel." Link??? I think you're making this up as you go along, fashioning a fairy tale to make Pollack's outrageous claim look reasonable.
That the only thing that is not stored in a typical chemical weapon shell is the fuze is made clear by the drawings here:
Bulk Storage Items
Chemical agent that is not stored in weapons is stored in bulk containers. These containers are similar to containers in general use in the chemical industry. They are probably the least hazardous way to store chemical agent because they do not contain any explosive or energetic components.
mitretek.org
-- Carl
Also see:
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In general, the ignition part of ammunition has to be removed or inactivated prior to destruction. Then starts the main part of elimination of the weapon. The US choose high-temperature incineration and chemical neutralization as its preferred destruction technique, which has to destroy the chemicals together with the metal casing. The cost of this procedure can outrun the cost of agent destruction many fold - in some cases by 10-20 times.
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It is assumed that the 30,000 tons of US chemical weapons material were accumulated over ~60 years, i.e. on the average 500 tons produced per year. The above order of magnitude estimate shows, that nuclear and chemical weapons wastes are in the same ball part, but are hundred thousand times smaller than the other toxic/dangerous waste. Due to the complexity of the toxic items, a qualitative comparison of present and future dangers for mankind and environment by taking only the quantitative aspects into consideration can and should not be made since it may lead to wrong conclusions.
wagingpeace.org
and:
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33. According to Gen. Binenfeld, the JNA in the late 1980s decided to stock 122mm shells filled each with 1.8 liters of sarin or sulfur mustard, 128mm rockets filled each with two liters of sarin, and aircraft bombs filled each with twenty liters of sarin. Binenfeld Paper.
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36 According to one PRETIS technician responsible for quality control, these shells, which were referred to in the factory as “special effect” shells, were produced under more stringent rules, had unusual production requirements, and did not go through the entire quality control process, including testing. Every twentieth shell was cut for quality control, and the threads of the fuse wells (where the fuse is screwed onto the shell) were coated with silver—apparently to create a tighter seal and prevent corrosion and leakage. Several hundred of these shells were produced at the factory until production was terminated by the war. Human Rights Watch interviews, Sarajevo, February 27-28, 1996.
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47 Human Rights Watch interview, Tuzla, August 4, 1996. Jane’s Intelligence Review has reported that these were chlorine-filled 120mm mortar rounds. Enis Dzanic, “The fall and rise of Bosnia’s war machine,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, vol. 9, no. 1 (January 1997), p. 24.
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hrw.org
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Knowing the total weight of different types of munitions can serve as a guide in identifying ACW. For example, Japan produced 150mm howitzer shells in four chemical configurations, each of a different total weight. A 150mm shell filled with mustard and lewisite mix weighed 21.27kg, a phosgene and arsenic trichloride mix weighed 30.59 kg, diphenylcyanoarsine weighed 32.1 kg, and a phosgene filled shell weighed 29.53 kg (Ki, 1996, pp 28-31). Under optimum conditions, when the shell has been properly cleaned, these weights can be used to identify the contents of the shell. However, since many munitions are corroded, mud and dirt on the outside of the shell might add to the total weight, just as leakage would subtract from the total weight.
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bicc.de |
