The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and its Relationship to Other Arms Control Treaties and Agreements Facing the Nuclear Community

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force in April 1997. Although no nuclear facilities are among the declared U.S. facilities, all such facilities are subject to a challenge inspection. In addition, many of the elements of the CWC are finding there way into a variety of arms control treaties and agreements that will impact the Department of Energy complex. Some of the elements include managed access, equipment inspections, blinded software for analytic equipment, challenge inspections and more. Treaties and agreements that could impact the Department of Energy complex include the Biological Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, and even START III. This paper will address the elements of the CWC and how they may find there way into these treaties and agreements that may impact the Department one day. For this reason it is important to understand the CWC, and how it is implemented at U.S. facilities.