This project provided financial and technical assistance in the design and construction of a new storage facility at the Mayak Production Association (Chelyabinsk-65) for fissile material from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons.

For more information on this topic please see the Fissile Material Storage Facility section of the PO Mayak file and Archived Mayak Fissile Material Storage Facility Developments section.

Fissile Material Containers
This program provides Russia with special containers designed by the Sandia National Laboratory to safely transport and store fissile material from approximately 25,000 dismantled Russian nuclear weapons.[1] The program stems from a June 1992 agreement between the United States and Russia entitled "Safe and Secure Transportation and Storage of Nuclear Weapons Materials Through the Provision of Fissile Material Containers."[2] In 1992 Sandia was contracted by the US Defense Special Weapons Agency to design and test containers for the program. The AT-400R containers they developed met the specified requirements of the DOE's Nuclear Explosive Safety Division, Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy, and VNIIEF.[3] A contract to manufacture the containers was awarded to the Engineered Products Department (EPD) of the Westinghouse Corporation. This department was formerly the Scientific Ecology Group, Inc. of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Production of the containers began in October 1995. As required by the contract, the fissile material containers are produced and shipped to Russia at a rate of about 840 per month.[3] The United States shipped 10,000 of the AT-400R containers to Russia in 1996.[2]  Approximately 14,000 additional containers were to have been shipped to Russia in 1997.[2]  During the second quarter of FY 97, officials were to have determined if additional containers were needed.[1]  Congress obligated nearly $50 million in Nunn-Lugar funds for this program through FY 1997.[4]
 
There has also been Japanese assistance in the construction of fissile material containers.
Sources:
[1] Department of Defense, "CTR Update: Russia," 19 September 1996.
[2] Sandia National Laboratories, "Sandia Accomplishments," 1997, p. 14, at http://www.sandia.gov/SA/SA.pdf.
[3] "Background Document: The Cooperative Threat Reduction Assistance to Russia", 16 January 1997, p. 2, Stimson Center Nuclear Roundtable Website, http://www.stimson.org/rd-table/ctr-russ.htm.
[4] Figures provided by CTR Program Office, US Department of Defense, 10 February 1997.
{Entered 4/3/98 PBI}
 

Page last updated 24 September 2002

Comments or questions? Contact Contact Cristina Chuen at MIIS CNS: Cristina.ChuenATmiis.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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