A U.S. ship loaded with toxic chemicals departed from an Italian port Wednesday, July 2, for an operation to remove and destroy about 1,300 tons of Syrian arms.
According to the New York Times, the specially equipped U.S. vessel, the Cape Ray, left the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro after a 12-hour transfer operation. The ship took the last of Syria’s known supplies of chemical substances from a Dutch ship, the Ark Futura, nine days ago.
The Huffington Post reported the Cape Ray is sailing to the open sea to destroy the weapons, including mustard gas and the raw materials for sarin nerve gas.
The Cape Ray uses two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems—mazes of tanks, tubes, cables and electronics—to handle the destructive chemicals. The systems will mix the chemicals with heated water and other chemicals in a titanium reactor. U.S. officials said no waste will be released into the atmosphere or the sea because they will be disposed in places that are equipped to handle toxic chemicals.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a Netherlands group that has been monitoring the project, said in a statement that the “transloading took place without incident.” It also expected the disposing operation would take around 60 days to complete.
Gian Luca Galletti, Italy’s environment minister, was proud to be involved in the project, and she said Italy was doing this for worldwide security in a “transparent and environmentally secure operation.”
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