Mining and Chemical Combine (GKhK)
Activities
MPC&A
Archived Developments
Plutonium
Production/Nuclear Power Reactor Complex
Plutonium
Reprocessing "Radiochemical" Plant
RT-2
Spent Fuel Reprocessing Plant
Archived Spent Fuel Developments
Krasnoyarsk
Machine Building Plant (Krasmash)
For major recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file.
The city of Zheleznogorsk (formerly Krasnoyarsk-26),
located about 70km northeast of the city of Krasnoyarsk, was established in 1950
to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. The city's population is approximately
100,000.[1] Approximately 8,000
people continue to work at the Mining and Chemical Combine (GKhK) in
Zheleznogorsk. Of those, approximately 4,000 work on weapons programs.[2] Also located in Zheleznogorsk is the
Krasnoyarsk
Machine Building Plant (Krasmash). This plant produces Proton and
Kosmos space launch vehicles, submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and
military and civilian satellites.[3,4] In 1998, Zheleznogorsk was chosen as one
of 10 Russian nuclear cities to take part in the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI)
program. In November 1999, the US
Department of Energy (DOE) and Zheleznogorsk opened the International
Development Center to support NCI program goals. NCI projects in Zheleznogorsk
have included a program to study the environmental impact of radioactive waste, production of medical bandages,
commercial use of radioisotope technology, and rare earth metal refining.[5] Among other
significant conversion projects is a Tank Retrieval and Closure Demonstration
Center, a
joint DOE and GKhK effort that provides facilities to demonstrate technologies for remediation of
high-level radioactive waste.[6]
Zheleznogorsk (formerly Krasnoyarsk-26), Krasnoyarsk Oblast
Address: 53 ulitsa Lenina, Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Oblast, 660033
Telephone: (39197) 3-20-01
Fax: (39197) 320374
Federal Atomic Energy Agency
The Combine comprises five main facilities.
1) an underground military plutonium production/nuclear
power reactor complex;
2) an underground military plutonium reprocessing
"radiochemical" plant (RCP) which houses a Plutonium
Oxide Storage Facility (POSF);
3) a coolant production plant;
4) the (partially built) RT-2 spent
fuel reprocessing plant and repair shop;
5) and an additional 22 smaller divisions.
Three graphite-moderated ADE-type underground reactors were used to produce
plutonium.[1] Two were shut down in 1992, one in June and one in September,
and the last remaining reactor is mainly used as a district heat and electricity
producing plant.[1,2,3] The ADE reactor uses natural uranium fuel and continues
to accumulate weapons grade plutonium[4], at an estimated rate of about
0.5 MT per year[5]. Under current agreements between Russia and the United
States, new plutonium produced at the plant is not delivered to weapons
production facilities.[6] According to the 1994 Agreement Concerning the
Shutdown of Plutonium Production Reactors and the Cessation of Use of Newly
Produced Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons, the ADE reactor was to be shut
down by the year 2000. Initially, Russia and the US planned to convert the core
of the reactor to use HEU or LEU. After
conversion, the focus of monitoring will be to confirm that reactor operations
are not reversed.[7] (Please see the section on the Gore-Chernomyrdin
Commission for more information and the full text.) In February 2001, US and
Russian officials had reached a preliminary agreement to replace the plutonium production reactor
power source with a new fossil-fuel plant instead of
modifying the core the existing plutonium production reactor.[8] In August
2001, Russia proposed amending the 1997 Agreement to extend the production of
plutonium at GKhK's reactor until December 2006.[9]
Beginning in 1964, the underground radiochemical plant reprocessed spent
nuclear fuel from the three plutonium production reactors, producing
PuO2 and uranyl nitrate. It now reprocesses fuel from the one remaining
operable reactor at Krasnoyarsk.[1,2]
A Plutonium Oxide Storage Facility (POSF) is located within the RCP. The
POSF stores plutonium dioxide.[3]
Plans to build the RT-2 spent fuel reprocessing plant,
designed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, originated in the late 1970s.[1,2] In 1985, the first
plant facility, containing the spent fuel storage
ponds, was completed and began
storing spent fuel.[3,4] Construction was stopped in 1989 due to lack of
funding and public opposition.[1,4] According to the 1 January 1996 issue of NuclearFuel,
Yevgeniy Mikerin, Head of Nuclear Fuel Production at Minatom, stated that
RT-2 was 30% complete. The 1996 NuclearFuel story also reported
that spent fuel was being stored at Zheleznogorsk's reactors and at an interim storage facility adjacent
to the RT-2 construction site.[5]
Spent fuel assemblies are stored at
least 30 years in a 10-meter deep pond at a certain distance from
each other to avoid a spontaneous chain reaction.[13] As of March 2001, RT-2
can store up to 6,000t of spent fuel,
or 12,000 spent fuel assemblies,[4,13] and, according to First Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Valentin Ivanov, could
be expanded to store up to
9,000t, or 18,000 spent fuel
assemblies.[6,13]
The RT-2 plant is designed to
reprocess spent fuel from VVER and RBMK reactors and
spent fuel from foreign light-water reactors.[2,7] It would have the capacity to reprocess 1,500t of fuel per year.[8] As
at RT-1, the final uranium product will be uranyl nitrate hexahydrate cake.[9]
The plutonium extraction capacity of RT-2 might, in the future, reach 10t per year. In 1994, Reuters cited construction cost estimates of 2 trillion 1994
rubles ($1.1 billion) for the plant.[10] In 1995,
Cochran et al. gave an estimate of 3.5
trillion 1994 rubles for completion of the plant, and a 10 year completion
time.[11] In November 2000,
Boris Nikipelov, a representative of Minatom, announced that the RT-2 facility
would be completed by 2015. Nikipelov said that when completed, the RT-2
plant would reprocess fuel by using a high-temperature dry processing technique. In addition to the existing "wet"
storage facility, Nikipelov announced Minatom's decision
to proceed with construction of a "dry" storage facility at RT-2.[2] Nikipelov's announcement came one month before the Russian
Duma approved the first of three readings of a bill that would allow Russia to import and reprocess foreign spent nuclear fuel. Minatom
officials believe that storage and reprocessing could be worth $20 billion over the next
10 to 15 years.[12]
The Mining and Chemical Combine was founded in 1950 for the production
of weapons-grade plutonium[1]. Over 40 MT of weapons-grade PuO2 has reportedly
been produced at Krasnoyarsk-26.[2] Three plutonium
production reactors went online between 1959 and 1964. Two were shut
down in 1992 and one continues to produce plutonium in addition to heat and
electricity for residential areas.[3] The third reactor was slated for
conversion in 2000 according to the
1994 US-Russia Plutonium Production Reactor Agreement.[4]
However, as of January 2001, no progress in choosing a core conversion option or finding an alternative energy
source had been made. In 1964, a spent
nuclear fuel reprocessing facility, the Radiochemical Reprocessing
Plant, began operation. The plant continues to
reprocess fuel from the Combine's plutonium production reactor. Construction of
another reprocessing plant, the RT-2 Spent Fuel Reprocessing
Plant, began in the 1970s. It is meant to reprocess spent fuel from civilian nuclear
facilities.[5] RT-2 remains unfinished, with only the "wet"
storage facility operational and storing spent fuel. In November 2000,
Boris Nikipelov, a Minatom representative, announced that the RT-2 plant would
be completed in 2015 and that a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel would be constructed at
Zheleznogorsk.[6]
The Mining and Chemical Combine (GKhK) participates in the US
Department of Energy (DOE) MPC&A program. An initial site visit was
conducted in June 1996. The territory of GKhK is divided into three security
zones: 1) a "protective zone" surrounded by a perimeter of
barbed-wire and security patrol paths; 2) an inner zone, which is actually the
production area underground within the facility; and 3) a "high-security
zone."[1] Facility workers are shuttled to the site from the residential area by electric
train.[2] The external threat to the site is considered minimal and
accordingly, DOE has concentrated on internal security improvements.
The Plutonium Oxide Storage
Facility (POSF), which is part of the Radiochemical Plant (RCP), was the initial focus of MPC&A upgrades, since it contains
fissile material in large quantities. DOE later focused MPC&A upgrades
on four additional Material Balance
Areas (MBAs): 1) the Reactor Plant Fresh Fuel Area where fresh uranium fuel is
received and stored; 2) the Reactor Plant where uranium fuel is loaded into the
reactor; 3) the Reactor Plant Irradiated-Fuel Storage Area (referred to by the
DOE as the "underground high-level waste storage tanks") where plutonium
content is calculated; and 4) the RCP.[1]
Another focus of MPC&A improvements at GKhK was upgrading the
computer-based fissile material accounting system. Several new computer programs were
created until DOE and GKhK chose one that incorporated
Java and Internet technologies.[4]
In 1999, GKhK created a site-wide MPC&A plan
which included 1) a facility description and the division of GKhK into
MBAs; 2) creating an MPC&A staff and management organizational structure; 3) descriptions of
the accounting and inventory systems at GKhK; 4) the creation of an in-house
accounting program to confirm and verify fissile material quantities; and 5)
a materials control system.
For a description of the MPC&A work performed
at this site in 1997-1998, please see DOE's December 1997 document,
United
States/Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection,
Control, and Accounting: Partnership for Nuclear Security and DOE's September 1998 document, United
States/ Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material
Protection, Control, and Accounting: Partnership for Nuclear Security.
Page last updated 9 December 2002
For major recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file.
For
archived developments,
see the GKhK Developments and
Spent Fuel Developments files.
Comments or questions? Contact Elena Sokova at MIIS
CNS: esokovaATmiis.edu
This material is produced independently for NTI
by the 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 © 2003 by MIIS.
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