SUDA: We are going to excavate 1,500 munitions, including about 500 chemical weapons, in a place called Beian in Heilongjiang province. We have already built a protective shield over the site. Workers will excavate inside this low-pressure dome, remove each shell individually, then X-ray each of them to identify the contents. Each shell will be stored in a blast-proof container for transportation to Qiqihar, a city about 300 kilometers away. The excavation site is located in a residential area, so the Chinese side has asked that we remove these chemical weapons first. It should take us about two weeks.
Both sides together. Japanese specialists, including members of Japan’s Self-Defense Agency, will be working alongside Chinese experts, some of them from the People’s Liberation Army. For that reason this is a very unusual project. Japan and China have never cooperated like this.
Beian is a very small part of the whole cleanup. The total number of chemical weapons that must be removed is about 700,000.
Neither side has sufficient information. Japan doesn’t know exactly how many shells are on Chinese soil, and the Chinese government doesn’t know either. Japan is determined to dispose of all abandoned chemical weapons. That is our responsibility. Japan is working with China to destroy this negative legacy of the war.
One thing that’s clear is that they will be destroyed in China. That was confirmed in a July 1999 memorandum of understanding. We will need more time to decide what type of technology is required to neutralize these old munitions. No country in the world has attempted to destroy such a huge quantity of old chemical weapons. The technical difficulty is not simply how to detoxify the chemical agents, but how to handle the explosives inside the shells. They come in many different shapes and sizes, so there is no simple solution. European countries are still neutralizing old chemical weapons manufactured during and after World War I. They do everything manually, and handle just 10 shells a day. With 700,000 shells to process we must go more quickly. Otherwise it could take us 100 years.
We don’t want too many people working there. We will use mechanical devices and robots. Theoretically, there is risk of a chain explosion. We must plan very carefully to minimize the danger. It will take several years to prepare this site, including construction of a road and other infrastructure. It is our main challenge.
We have never said how much it might cost. But $10 billion sounds too high.
This is not on the table. It is possible that the issue was raised several years ago, but now we have a businesslike understanding of how to implement this project and China is not raising that kind of political argument. We are working quite well together and understand each other. Japan and China have no experience working together on such a big project. If we are successful it will greatly benefit our bilateral relationship.
