Originally published on October 9, 2013
On Sunday a team of international chemical experts began the lengthy and expensive process of destroying Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, a stockpile estimated to be over 1,000 tonnes.
"It's very difficult to see how a process like that is going to work in the middle of a war zone," said former senior policy officer at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, Faiza Patel, according to an NBC News report. "It's a process that is very complicated and quite challenging to manage, even in normal circumstances."
Experts estimate destroying Syria's massive chemical weapons arsenal, could take years and cost billions of dollars.
While the OPCW, which is supervising the task, has yet to reveal clear details of the techniques to be used, two primary alternative methods exist for disposing of the lethal agents safely - incineration and neutralization.
As part of both processes, the containers and munitions must first be disassembled and drained.
The process of incineration involves the liquid agents being fed into an incinerator, creating waste gas as a byproduct, which is next passed through multiple filters and released as clean gas into the atmosphere.
The cheaper alternative process of neutralization, mixes the liquid agent with water and caustic solution, before heating the mixture, to destroy its chemical toxicity.
Neutralization leaves large amounts of liquid waste which must be sent to waste treatment plants.
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