Production Russia produces about six percent of the world's total uranium.[1] The Uranium Institute
estimates 1999 production
figures at 2,000 metric tons (t) per year.[2] As of June 2000, Russia's Ministry
of Atomic Energy stated that uranium production stood at 2,500t per
year.[3] In a September 1998 article, Bellona
estimated production at
2,500t per year, with an additional 1,000t produced from enrichment
tailings.[4] According to the Uranium Institute, overall uranium production has decreased since
1993.[5]
However, the All-Russian Institute for Chemical Technologies announced in late
November 2000 that Russia plans to double uranium production to 4,000-4,500t annually by
2010.[6] According to the IAEA 2001 "Red Book" Uranium 2001: Resources,
Production and Demand,
Russia produced approximately 2,987t U3O8
in 1998, 3,083t in 1999, 3,260t in 2000, and an estimated 3,437t U3O8 in 2001.[25]
Domestic Consumption and Stockpiles Russia exports 16,000t of uranium each year, and uses 8,000-8,500t to
produce nuclear fuel.[6] As of December 2000 it was
estimated that Russian nuclear power stations used between 3,000t and
4,500t of uranium annually with an additional 2,200t committed to fuel
Soviet-built reactors in the NIS and Eastern Europe. Approximately 1,000t
is used to produce submarine fuel.[8,9,25]
Russia relies
heavily on its large uranium stockpile to make up the difference
between the uranium it annually exports and uses
domestically (24,000-24,500t) and the uranium it annually mines
(2,000-2,500t). Russia's stockpiles are equivalent to 500,000t of
low-enriched uranium (LEU). This figure takes into account 1,400t of highly
enriched uranium (HEU) which is equivalent to 420,000t of LEU added to 80,000t of uranium that has been stockpiled over the years.[8]
Minatom plans to increase the number of civilian
nuclear plants over the next 20 years and expand nuclear energy
production, which would increase domestic consumption of uranium.[8] Viktor Ivanov, a spokesman for the Russian National Industrial Technology Research and Design Institute, stated
in June 2000 that Russia will use approximately 10,000t of uranium
annually beginning in 2010.[3]
Export Russian uranium exports come from three
sources: uranium that is mined, uranium from stockpiles,
and LEU that is downblended from HEU under the US-Russia HEU
Deal. The
last year statistics for Russian uranium exports were made public was in
1996, when approximately 16,000t was exported.[10] In December 2000,
the director of Russia's Geologorazvedka
State Research and Production Enterprise said that export volume remains
at 16,000t.[10] According to the French
company Cogema, Russia accounts for 40% of uranium supply to European
countries.[10] Russia began exporting uranium in the mid-1970s to France,
Spain, Great Britain, Belgium, and Germany. In the late 1980s and
early 1990s, export to South Korea and the United States
began.[11]
Mining and Milling Industry Russia's estimated reserves of ores with a high uranium
content are 145,400t.[2] Most of these deposits are located
in Chita Oblast, near Krasnokamensk, site of the Priargunskiy Mining and
Chemical Combine (PMCC). The PMCC is managed by the Atomredmetzoloto
joint stock company, which in turn is majority-owned by Minatom. All uranium mining activities
in Russia are managed by Atomredmetzoloto, which also owns several other mining and milling
enterprises in Russia.[12,13]
Since 1993, the PMCC has been the only entity producing uranium in
Russia.[15] The PMCC was established in 1968. It conducts mining in the Streltsovsk
uranium ore deposit in the Zabaykalye region. The PMCC mines and processes
molybdenum-uranium ores with natural uranium oxide and ammonium paramolybdate as
final products. It operates both underground and open pit mines.[16] According
to the IAEA,
the PMCC mines uranium ore from the Streltsovsk deposit primarily by underground methods;
additional small quantities are produced by stope/block leaching and heap
leaching.[25] In 1993,
the PMCC produced 2,640t.[17] In 1995, it produced 2,585t
U3O8, a 499t decrease from
1991 figures.[18] In May 1996, the combine was seeking $80 million in funding to increase
its uranium production in order to cover the fuel shortage expected for
Russian power stations in the late 1990s. Most of the plant's 1996 annual
production was exported.[19] As of 1998, the PMCC was
operating three mines (work at several other mines was stopped due to decreased
orders from the state following the Chernobyl accident).[20] The IAEA data indicate that in
1998-2000 the PMCC
produced U3O8 from mined uranium ore in the range of about
2,906-3,087t annually. An additional 59t U3O8 were produced as a result
of in-situ leaching (ISL) in 2000; ISL production is expected to increase.[25]
The PMCC has also been involved in
prospecting. In 1996, the combine discovered deposits at Srednaya Padma
(Karelia), Dobrovolskoye (south Kurgan Oblast), and Dalmatovskoye (300km north of Dobrovolskoye). Geologorazvedka has
found small but rich deposits in northwest Russia, the Far East, southwest
Siberia, east Baykal, the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic, and the foothills
of the Ural mountains.[21]
In December 2000, Atomredmetzoloto reported that three new production facilities to
mine and mill uranium would be constructed in the next 10 years. These new
facilities will be built in Kurgan Oblast (Dalmatovskoye desposit), Kemerovo Oblast (Malenkovskoye deposit), and Republic of Buryatiya (Khiagunskoye
deposit).[6,7]
In July 2000, an agreement was reached between the governments
of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan to create a three-way venture to mine the
Zarechnoye uranium deposit in Kazakhstan's Dzhambul region (For more information, see the
Kyrgyzstan: Uranium Mining and
Milling section).[14]
Other Uranium Ore Deposits A March 1998 article in Nukem stated that 15
districts within 11 regions of Russia contained "uranium deposits and
significant occurrences" of ore.[22] According to the July
1996 issues of The Nuclear Review, there were six "ore-bearing regions" which had been explored but
not developed. These are the Zauralskiy, Yeniseyskiy, Vitimskiy, Tsentralno-Transbaykalskiy,
Onezhskiy, and Dalnevostochnyy regions. To this list, the IAEA adds
the Elkonsk region.[21] According to Russian geologists, large deposits
of uranium are located in the Aldan Uplands (Yakutia), Karelia, and in
the Ural mountains.[23] Jane's Intelligence Review mentions Aldan Kardia, Novogornyy,
Slyudyanka, Vyshnevogorsk, and Vikhorevka as sites of uranium mining and
milling.[24]
Updated February 2001 by Greg Dwyer
NISNP Graduate Research Assistant
Sources: [1] "World Uranium Production in
1999,"
The Uranium Institute Web Site, http://www.uilondon.org/uilondon/uglobu.htm. [2] "Uranium Production and
Resources,"
The Uranium Institute Web Site, http://www.uilondon.org/uilondon/uilondon/ures.htm. [3] ITAR-TASS, 20 June 2000; in
"Enough natural uranium for 10-15 years," Lexis-Nexis
Academic Universe, http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe, 23 June
2000. [4] Igor Kudrik, "Karelia to Start
Uranium Mining," Bellona Foundation Web Site, http://www.bellona.com,
28 September 1998. [5] "Uranium Production Figures," The
Uranium Institue Web Site, http://www.uilondon.org. [6] "Rossiya k 2010 godu uvelichit
proizvodstvo urana vdvoye do 4-4,5 tys. tonn," Interfax, 29 November
2000. [7] "Three Uranium Mines Will be Constructed in Russia," Pravda,
30 November 2000; in RANSAC Nuclear News, 1 December 2000, http://www.ransac.org/new-web-site/index.html. [8] "Russian uranium stockpiles may run dry in 20
years," Interfax, 30 November 2000. [9] "Rossiya namerena uvelichit
dobiychu urana do 10 tys. tonn k 2110 g.," UNIAN, No. 48, 27 November-3 December 2000. [10] The Russian Business Monitor, 29
November 2000; in "Russia Accounts for 40% of Uranium Supply to
European Union Countries," Lexis-Nexis Academic
Universe, http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe, 1 December
2000. [11] "Torgovy dom budushchego 'Atomproma',"
Vek, No. 48, 1-7 December 2000, p.6. [12] Nuclear Business Directory (Moscow:
International Business Relations Corporation, 2000), p. 84. [13] "Priargunskiy Company
Links," Wise Uranium Project Web Site, http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/ucprg.html. [14] Interfax, 31 July 2000; in "Russia,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan To Form Uranium Mining Joint Venture," FBIS
Document FBIS-SOV-00-208. [15] "Uranium: 1993 Resources, Production, and Demand," a
joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the IAEA (Paris, 1994),
p. 215. [16] Oleg Bukharin, Osnovnyye elementy yadernogo
toplivnogo tsikla v byvshem SSSR i Rossii (Moscow: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publishing
House, September, 1992), p. 4. [17] "World Nuclear Industry Handbook 1995,"
Nuclear Engineering International, p. 120. [18] "Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)," Nukem,
June 1996,
p. 66. [19] Uranium Institute News Briefing, 9 June 1996. [20] I. Nikolayev, "Uran gosudarstvu
nuzhen," Atompressa, No. 30, 28 August 1998, p. 2. [21] "The State Of The Russian Nuclear Industry," The
Nuclear Review, July 1996, pp. 18-23. [22] "The Russian approach to
Mining, Milling & Management," Nukem, March 1998, pp.4-27. [23] Interfax, 10 December, 1994; in "'Enormous' Uranium Reserves
To Last Until 2040," FBIS-SOV-94-238, 10 December 1994. [24] Steven Zaloga, "The CIS Nuclear Weapons Industry," Jane's
Intelligence Review, September 1992, p. 389. {Entered
2/14/01 GD}
[25] "Major FSU Producers Gradually
Increasing Output," FreshFuel, Vol. 19, No. 675, 26 August 2002, p. 3.
{Updated 10/28/2002 DA}
Fissile Material Production and Disposition
