|
Roughly 25% of the world's uranium reserves are in
Kazakhstan.[1] According to
Kazatomprom, reasonably assured resources
are approximately 600,000 MT and proven plus probable reserves are estimated
at 1.66 million MT.[2]
Kazakhstan played a key role during the Soviet era
as a supplier and processor of uranium. Uranium was mined throughout
the country and processed at Kazakhstan's
Tselinnyy
Mining and Chemical Combine and the
Prikaspiyskiy
Mining and Metallurgy Combine as well as at the
Kara
Balta Ore Mining Combine in Kyrgyzstan and Vostokredmet's
Combine
No. 6 in Tajikistan. Kazakhstan also produced uranium
dioxide pellets for nuclear fuel at
Ulba Metallurgy
Plant at Ust-Kamenogorsk.
Through the state-owned joint stock company Kazatomprom,
Kazakhstan was one of the top 10 producers of uranium in the world in 1999.[3] Kazatomprom plans to expand uranium production between 2000 and 2002 through
the development of new
mines in southern Kazakhstan and with the help of joint ventures with foreign
companies.[4]
Weapons-grade fissile material is located
at three sites in Kazakhstan: the
Mangyshlak
Atomic Energy Combine (MAEK), Aktau; the
Institute
of Atomic Energy, Kurchatov; and the
Institute
of Nuclear Physics, Alatau. Weapons-grade HEU was removed from
the
Ulba Metallurgy Plant in 1994 through
Project
Sapphire. (Please see the Kazakhstan
fissile material table for details.)
This section of the database provides information
on mining
and milling activities; provides facility
overviews and facility
developments; and provides information on activities at
Ulba
Metallurgy Plant, including Project Sapphire.
For information on Material Protection, Control, and Accounting, see the MPC&A
section in Foreign Assistance: DOE.
|
