(10 Apr 2014) The US government-owned ship charged with neutralising Syria's most dangerous chemical weapons is ready to leave the Spanish port of Rota to embark on its mission.
The MV Cape Ray, equipped with two titanium reactors, will neutralise Syria's stockpile of sulphur mustard and the nerve agent sarin while on the high seas.
The two agents cannot be destroyed using normal commercial processes and must first be neutralised using the process of hydrolysis.
Once neutralised, they can be destroyed by normal means.
No waste is to be ejected into the sea, according to the United Nation-backed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Rear Admiral Robert Burke, US 6th Fleet Commander, said on Thursday that all precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of the crew and environment.
"The entire (hydrolysis) unit is self contained, there are layers of environmental controls that protect the air while we are handling the materials on board the ship. And then the entire process is contained in tanks within the ship, within those environmental controls," he said.
"So layer upon layer of containment," he added.
The Syrian authorities have 17 days left to move their remaining stockpile of chemical weapons to the port of Latakia, where they will be removed from the country, said the OPCW.
"If they are out by that time then we are confident that the destruction activity can be completed in time to meet the 30th of June deadline to complete the whole mission," said OPCW spokesperson, Michael Luhan.
Syria is thought to have had around 1,300 tons of chemical agents.
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