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Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex
Located 25 km northeast of Lanzhou, Gansu Province (103.41E/36.03N).
URANIUM CONVERSION FACILITY -- CLOSED
The facility converts uranium using the UF6 process. The facility's start-up occurred in 1980, and had a capacity of 1,000 tons per year.
LANZHOU GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT (GDP) -- CLOSED
OTHER NAMES: Uranium Enrichment Plant, Plant 504, the Lanzhou Uranium Enrichment Plant
The GDP became operational in 1964 and for many years was China's main site for highly enriched uranium (HEU) production for nuclear weapons. GDP uses the gaseous diffusion technique for uranium enrichment. The facility was initially constructed with some Soviet assistance which promptly stopped following the Sino-Soviet split in 1960. In the early 1970s, the plant reportedly had a 150-330 kg per year production capacity which likely increased later through modification. In the 1970s, China built a second facility for uranium enrichment in Heping (Sichuan Province), in case the Lanzhou facility was destroyed during an attack.
The Lanzhou GDP began commercial operation in 1980 and until 1997 produced low enriched uranium (LEU) for the 300 MW PWR at Qinshan. China stopped its production of HEU in 1989. As of 1996, the GDP was reportedly operating at 98 percent of design capacity. According to the IAEA, the plant had a capacity of 500,000 SWU/year.
In mid 1997, Chinese officials decided to shut down the Lanzhou enrichment facility due to its inefficient reliance on a large hydroelectric plant for electricity generation and the availability of more advanced enrichment technologies (such as gas centrifuges) from Russia. In June 1999, Chinese officials decided to decommission the Lanzhou facility and agreed to treat large amounts of high level radioactive for eventual disposal. This decision was ordained by Premier Zhu Rongji and was a consequence of two actions: the restructuring and streamlining of China's nuclear industry and the decision to construct a new and very large uranium enrichment facility using Russian gas centrifuges at a site 25 km north of Lanzhou. This facility will reportedly have a capacity of 500,000 SWU/y and is the third phase of a ongoing Sino-Russian project begun in 1992 to build several gas centrifuge facilities. The first two facilities in the Sino-Russian project are being constructed near Hanzhong in southern Shaanxi province. The decision to decommission the Lanzhou facility was reportedly made at the same time as the decision to re-locate the third phase facility. New reports also indicated that China moved the third phase plan to Lanzhou from Hanzhong in order to prevent layoffs at the Lanzhou site. This new facility, once construction is complete, will have a larger HEU capacity than the first two facility located at Hanzhong. (See Uranium Enrichment) [Mark Hibbs, "China said to be preparing for decommissioning defense plants," Nuclear Fuel, 5/17/99, p. 11; Mark Hibbs, "China moved centrifuge complex to keep enriching U at Lanzhou", Nuclear Fuel, 5/17/99, pp. 11-12.]
PILOT-SCALE REPROCESSING PLANT
A pilot-scale reprocessing plant is currently under construction at the Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex. The new facility will use the PUREX process and will have an expected throughput of 100 to 400 kilograms of low enriched uranium (LEU) per day. The reprocessing plant will also have a "hot facility" used to reprocess research reactor fuels with a throughput of 900 grams of highly enriched uranium per day (HEU). The facility was supposed to begin separating plutonium from civil spent fuel by the year 2000, but construction on the project has been delayed. The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) reportedly does not have enough money to finish the plant on schedule and Russia has delayed an export license for some plant equipment. In addition, the construction company contracted by CNNC may be replaced because of faulty work, including cracks in the concrete floor of the plant.
Ultimately, both rail and sea transport will be used to move the materials to Lanzhou, but until that link is fully established in 2010, waste materials will be transported by truck.
The Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex, may eventually be combined with an industrial-scale reprocessing plant, and will be used to store spent fuel after its completion. According to CNNC official Sun Donghui, separated plutonium would initially serve in MOX fuel for an experimental 25 MWe fast breeder reactor (FBR) that would be built by the turn of the century, and possibly also in pressurized water reactors (PWRs).
US officials have been critical of China's plans to reprocess spent nuclear fuel at Lanzhou, arguing that China has no need for such a capacity.
LOW-TO-MEDIUM LEVEL WASTE STORAGE
Lanzhou contains a center for temporary spent fuel storage pending reprocessing.
FUEL-RELATED RESEARCH
Lanzhou also conducts research on dissolution of fast reactor fuel pellets.
[Sources: IAEA, The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System: A Directory of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities, 1995 Edition, pp. 11, 42, 53, 110; Nuclear Weapons Databook, Volume 5, p. 339; NAC International, "Nuclear Industry Status Report on UF6," February 1995; Mark Hibbs, "With More Russian Centrifuges, China Will Close Lanzhou Plant," NuclearFuel, 6 October 1997, pp. 3-4; Yan Kong, "China's Nuclear Bureaucracy," Jane's Intelligence Review, 7/93, pp. 324, 326; Tracking Nuclear Proliferation, p. 52; Mark Hibbs, "Chinese Separation Plant to Reprocess Spent HEU Fuel," NuclearFuel, 13 January 1997, p. 3; Simon Rippon, "China: Ready For More Nuclear Power," Nuclear News, June 1995, p. 33; Lisbeth Gronlund, David Wright, and Yong Liu, "China And A Fissile Material Production Cut-Off," Survival, Winter 1995-96, p. 159; Edward T. Fei, "Nuclear Energy And Nuclear Fuel Cycle Issues In East Asia," a presentation at the Northeast Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing, January 1996, p. 6; Risk Report, November 1995, p. 7; "China's First Batch Of Spent Fuel Transport Casks," Nuclear News, June 1995, p. 52. "Daya Bay Spent Fule to be Moved to Separation Plant Pool By 2000, Nuclear Fuel, Vol 23, No. 22, p. 4; Mark Hibbs, "Chinese Reprocessing Program Awaiting Decision On Pu Needs," Nuclear Fuel, Vol. 25, No. 7, 3 April 2000.]
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the
opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or
its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by
MIIS.
