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According to the IAEA, China has a capacity to convert 400 tons of uranium to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) per year. According to the IAEA, China has two conversion facilities in operation, at Beijing (capacity N/A) and Lanzhou (400 tons/year).
According to Risk Report, China purifies uranium at the Baotou Nuclear Fuel Component Plant and at the Yibin Nuclear Fuel Element Plant, and converts uranium to uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) at the Jiuquan Atomic Energy Complex and in Sichuan Province (either Guangyuan or Yibin).
URANIUM REFINING AND CONVERSION FACILITIES
| NAME | LOCATION | COMMENTS |
| Baotou Nuclear Fuel Component Plant | ||
| Bureau of Nuclear Fuels | Beijing | Uranium conversion; UF4/UF6 process; start-up: 1986 |
| China Academy of Atomic Science | ||
| Guangyuan | Guangyuan | Possible site |
| Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex | ||
Nuclear Fuel Processing Plant
|
Located at Jiuquan Atomic Energy Complex, Subei, Gansu Province (near 94.58E/39.26N) | Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) processing; converts weapons-grade uranium hexafluoride to uranium metal for weapons; commissioned on 29 November 1963 to synthesize uranium hexafluoride (UF6) |
Tongxian Uranium Mining and
Hydrometallurgy Institute
|
Located at Tongxian (116.39E/39.55N) | Produced uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) |
| Yibin Nuclear Fuel Element Plant | Yibin | |
| ? | Sichuan Province | Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) plant |
NAMES IN ITALICS ARE FACILITIES NOT IN OPERATION
[Sources: IAEA, The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Information System: A Directory of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities, 1995 Edition, pp. 10, 42, 110; Risk Report, November 1995, p. 3; Nuclear Weapons Databook, Volume 5, p. 339; Yan Kong, "China's Nuclear Bureaucracy," Jane's Intelligence Review, July 1993, p. 321; Tracking Nuclear Proliferation, p. 52; Lisbeth Gronlund, David Wright, and Yong Liu, "China And A Fissile Material Production Cut-Off," Survival, Winter 1995-96, p. 159.]
Last Updated June 1998
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
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