PROGRAM ON PROCESSING OF 872 TONS OF MELANGE LAUNCHED IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The melange processing program in Armenia
is a good example of successful cooperation between the OSCE Office
and a participating state and may serve as a model in the whole OSCE
region. The OSCE Secretary General Marc Parrin de Brichambaut stated
this during the May 12 visit to the rocket fuel neutralization site in
the village of Ghaltakhchi of Lori marz. He welcomed the start of the
program on processing of 872 tons of melange. “With the assistance of
the OSCE, it has become possible to implement this initiative, which
will be conducive to the environmetal protection and therefore to the
security of the Armenian population,” the RA Defence Minister Serge
Sargsian said, when opening officially the melange processing facility.

Melange is a very poisonous evaporating substance that has remained
as a rocket fuel component in Armenia since the Soviet time. In
compliance with a request of the RA defence minister, the OSCE Yerevan
Office launched a program, as a result of which the whole stock of
melange will be processed into ecologically safe fertilizer in a
7-month period. NT was informed from the OSCE Yerevan Office that the
current processing stage was preceded by the technical and ecological
assessment work done by Armenian and international experts. The
program is being financed by Canada, Finland, Germany and the US.