US struggles with chemical stockpile

This device renders chemical weapons harmless

By the BBC's Stephen Sackur in Alabama

A US army base in Alabama is one of the most dangerous places in America.

It is home to tens of thousands of missiles tipped with deadly Sarin and VX nerve agent, enough to kill millions of people.

Three years ago the Americans signed an international agreement to destroy their entire chemical arsenal within a decade.

Up in smoke

The US has spent a billion dollars on this incinerator

These Alabama bunkers represent less than 10% of America's vast chemical weapons stockpile.

The US Government has just seven years left to get rid of the lot, but destroying them - safely - is proving to be a major headache.

The US army's proposed solution is a vast, heavily guarded incinerator still under construction at the Aniston base.

Starting in 2002, 2,000 tons of lethal chemical weapons will go up in smoke here.

Protest movement

But a grassroots protest movement is stirring in northern Alabama.

The chemical weapons in Alabama hold enough nerve agents to kill millions

"If we had a chemical incident, people will needlessly die," said one concerned citizen.

About 100,000 people live close to the site where the chemical weapons are to be burned, and just a few weeks ago these people learned of a leak at a chemical weapons incinerator in the isolated Rocky Mountains.

"We want to get rid of them along with everybody else in the community here, and along with the international chemical weapons convention. We are in complete agreement with them. The only thing we disagree with is the method," a member of the protest movement said.

Green alternative

The Silver Two system turns chemical weapons into harmless materials

There is an alternative, and it is British. Engineers from an Oxfordshire-based company, AEA Technology, have shipped an intricate chemistry set known as Silver Two to a US military base to prove that they can reduce nerve agent and mustard gas to harmless waste.

"This technology provides a solution for the world's chemical munitions legacy," said a representative from the company.

"It's extremely environmentally friendly," he said, adding that the chemical weapons are broken down into carbon dioxide, water and simple salts.

Race against time

But in Alabama the army's aging chemical weapons are starting to leak. Their billion-dollar incinerator is almost ready, and they want to use it.

"Everyday we wait, everyday we look for something different, is one day longer when the community is at risk," said Lieutenant Colonel Tony Francis.

For now the Americans are keeping a lid on their chemical weapons problem.

But they, the Russians and the Chinese must urgently destroy some of the most lethal weapons ever made.

British scientists think they have the solution. The question is who will use it?