C&EN: TODAY'S HEADLINES - SNPE Refutes Charge Of Illegal Sales To Iraq

RICK MULLIN

The French state-owned chemical and explosives firm SNPE is denying a recent report that it is involved in the illegal sale of 99% unsymmetric dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), a missile fuel, and ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer for solid propellant missiles, to Iraq.

The denial comes in response to accusations in an editorial by syndicated columnist William Safire in the March 13 New York Times. Safire did not reveal the source of his information, writing that he has been “poking around for only about a week, starting with data originating from an Arab source.”

Bernard Roussel, SNPE’s vice president of communications, provided C&EN with details to support the firm’s claim. Roussel says SNPE formerly manufactured UDMH for the European civilian rocket, Ariane 4, and as a raw material for daminozide, an agricultural chemical. However, production was halted two years ago when the Ariane 4 program was terminated. The Ariane 5 uses no UDMH, he says.

Ammonium perchlorate is manufactured at SNPE’s Toulouse facility. That plant was shut down in September 2001 after an explosion at the neighboring Grande Paroisse fertilizer facility and resumed operations only recently. Roussel says inventories of ammonium perchlorate are “so low that we cannot fulfill the French needs, and we buy this material from the U.S. to complement our production.”

Roussel adds that all sales of these materials are regulated and approved by the French government, safeguards that he claims preclude the chance of sales to Iraq through a third party.