Russians Wary of Chemical Arms Plan

Despite the lengthy preparation in the United States, accidents occurred. "In a few cases there were explosions that damaged the robots," Walker said.

In Russia there will be very little, if any, time for testing if the April 2007 deadline is to be met. "People are concerned over safety and spillage, especially for the workers," Walker said. "We're all really hopeful even though we remain deeply concerned over the safety and the efficacy of an unproven technology."

Lev Fedorov, a scientist, activist and president of Russia's Union for Chemical Safety, contends that the water-based neutralization of the bombs has not been properly tested. His group fears that the resealed bombs could rupture from the internal pressure of the reaction between the agent and the water-based solution.

"From physics we know that in each container for liquid like this 10 percent of the volume should be left for expansion," he said. "They are going to pour 7 percent and leave only 3 percent for 100 days. It's dangerous."

Russian authorities, however, express confidence that their method has been well tested, including by independent experts. "We examined about 50 different technologies and individual proposals," Viktor Petrunin, general director of State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, told the official government newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Officials point out that critics such as Fedorov predicted all kinds of calamities when work began at the country's first chemical destruction site, in Gorny, in the Volga River region, but nothing adverse happened. There, however, a different method was used to neutralize lewisite and mustard gas.

"We've tried to have a real dialogue with people like Fedorov, but they seem more interested in stirring up trouble," said Manin. "It's a painful topic and people make their careers on it."

Officials said they have planned for accidents, and will have an alarm and evacuation plan in place by March. All households in the area are being supplied with gas masks. Studies are underway to measure any changes in the environment once work begins.

"People will be told where to go depending on the wind," said Viktor Feofanov, head of the Department for Civil Defense and Fire Security in the Kirov region. "We have done a lot of training with the population and the population will know what routes to take."

"Mirny is very calm," said Yevgeny Yudintsev, the town's mayor.

In random interviews across the region, however, few seemed so calm . "Everyone is nervous," said Anatoly Gulin, a local businessman. "Please stop this," said Galina Bagaiyeva, a music teacher.

Local activists said that if officials were so confident of public opinion, they would not have fought a long legal battle to prevent a district-wide referendum on the location of the destruction plant. The Russian Supreme Court in 2001 rejected the right of local citizens to demand a vote on the issue.

Late last year, in their final gambit, opponents of the plant organized a letter-writing campaign to the Kremlin in an attempt to get President Vladimir Putin to intervene.

"This is very dangerous," wrote Svetlana Mysova, 12, who said her entire school wrote to Putin. "We ask you to ban the process of destruction of chemical weapons until the scientists invent a good and reliable method of destruction. Until they prove that to our independent scientists. . . . Now many people are sick here because we eat the gifts of the forest and we breath the air with a strange aftertaste."

Mysova got a response that she said was "humiliating." The official Rossiiskaya Gazeta reprinted excerpts from the letters, including hers, with some snide commentary. "They'd better listen less to all those visiting 'independent scholars' but pay more attention to all this dirt which is leaking to garbage pits and dumps from their own garages and 'ecologically clean' cow sheds," the newspaper wrote. "Then maybe the gifts of the forest would not have that strange aftertaste."

Opponents of the plant say they recognize the need to destroy the weapons, but wanted it moved at least six miles away from Mirny. It currently lies about 2,000 yards away.

Original proposals were for a 3,000-yard "exclusion zone" in which no one could live. But when officials "saw they would have to pay for everyone to move, they reduced it. Very convenient and very cynical," said Andrei Taranov, a member of the regional parliament.

Russian officials insisted that their studies show the safe distance is actually about 600 to 700 yards, but they increased it to be as cautious as possible. The distance of 3,000 yards, they said, was never more than a suggestion.

"Safety is our first concern -- not deadlines," said Manin. "Nothing will happen until everything is ready and we're absolutely confident. This will be a safe operation."