Return to the main International Assistance Programs page
Please also see the Naval Nuclear Reactors: Foreign Assistance section

On 3 March 1995, it was reported that Germany had provided Russia with approximately $13.8 million in disarmament assistance since 1993.[1] As of 1995, Germany and France were cooperating to provide Russian nuclear regulators with a data communications network. Germany was reportedly spending $1.2 million for this project. By the end of 1995 Germany had contributed or allocated $137.4 million for bilateral projects with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and $43.2 million for the EBRD Nuclear Safety Account.[2] By the end of 1997, the German government provided technical assistance and planned to allocate nearly DM2 million worth of assistance to increase physical protection of nuclear materials at the  Bochvar All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Inorganic Materials (VNIINM).[4] Also, from 1997 to 2002 the Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosenergoatom will receive several million dollars from Germany to enhance safety at Russian nuclear power plants.[3] Germany has funded the delivery of equipment to enhance the safety of the Balakovo nuclear power plant.[4] Additionally, Germany participates in the International Science and Technology Center. Germany has also aided Russia, technically and financially, in producing mixed-oxide fuel for Russian nuclear reactors, utilizing plutonium from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons and in the training of operators of Russian nuclear reactors. The two countries are also cooperating in the design of nuclear power plant equipment and an automated control system for the new Russian VVER-640 reactor in Sosnovyy Bor. [4] As of February 1998, German aid to Russia's nonproliferation efforts had been DM 65 million (approximately $35 million). This assistance has taken the form of measuring devices, protective suits, and robots to be used in dangerously radioactive areas.[5]

Additionally, Germany is cooperating with France and Russia on the design of a pilot plant to fabricate MOX fuel from weapons-grade Russian plutonium. The project involves Minatom, Cogema, the Gesellschaft fur Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit, and Siemens.  As of November 1997, a feasibility study had been completed on a pilot facility that would process approximately one ton of plutonium per year.[6]
Sources:
[1] Reuters, "Scientists Report On Russian Plutonium Conversion;" in Executive News Service, 3 March 1995.
[2] Source Book: Soviet Designed Nuclear Power Plants in Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Armenia, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria, 4th edition, (Washington D.C.: Nuclear Energy Institute, 1996).
[3] Interfax, "Interfax Business Report for 18 July;" in FBIS-SOV-97-108, 7/17/97.
[4] "Russia's Cooperation with the Nuclear Summit Participants: the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan," International Affairs, 1996, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 42-43.
[5] "Ein Roboter fur die todlichen Auftrage," Suddeutsche Zeitung, 28 February 1998.
[6] Gerd Busmann, Oliver Meier, and Otfried Nassauer, "The Nuclear Legacy of the Former Soviet Union: Implications for Security and Ecology," BITS Research Report 97.1, November 1997.
{Entered 4/4/98, PBI}

ARCHIVED GERMAN ASSISTANCE DEVELOPMENTS:

7/7/2003:  GERMANY HAS COMMITTED $1.7 BILLION FOR ASSISTANCE PROJECTS IN RUSSIA
As of July 2003, Germany had committed €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) for assistance projects in Russia.[1]  In addition, it has announced particular projects that will be funded during the first half of the Global Partnership Program.  These include the construction of a land-based reactor storage facility in Sayda Bay, as well as funds for handling radioactive waste and carrying out environmental remediation at the site (€300 million), €170 million for technical designs and equipment to improve the physical protection of radioactive material and spent fuel, €10 million for the European Union's Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) nuclear projects, including projects involving the disposal of nuclear materials and the dismantlement of decommissioned submarines in particular.  Germany has also committed funds to chemical weapons destruction:  €300 million for the construction of a CW destruction facility at Kambarka, and €8.4 million for parts and materials needed for the CW destruction plant at Gornyy.[2] [For the text of the German foreign ministry's statement on its assistance projects under the Global Partnership, see "The German Contribution to the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction," a translation by CNS, available at: http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/030604d.htm.]
Sources:
[1] "Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction: G8 Senior Officials Group Annual Report," Evian Summit Website, http://www.g8.fr/evian/english/home.html
[2] "Der deutsche Beitrag zur G8-Globalen Partnerschaft gegen die Verbreitung von Massenvernichtungswaffen und -materialien," German Foreign Ministry Web Site, http://www.diplo.de/www/de/aussenpolitik/friedenspolitik/
abr_und_r/aktuell_massenvernichtungswaffen_html, accessed 7 July 2003. {Entered 7/24/2003 CC}

6/27/2002: GERMANY COMMITS TO GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP AGAINST THE SPREAD OF WMD
On 27 June 2002, the G8 issued a statement outlining a new initiative, entitled the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (for more information on this initiative, see the G8 information in the International Assistance file). The G8 initiative was received very positively by the German media, which emphasized the environmental aspects
of the program, and the possible benefits for German industrial concerns that would be involved. Germany also was, next to the United States, one of the first countries to pledge assistance, committing itself to $1.5 billion. It also supported the initiative at the summit. While Germany had principally been promoting economic debt exchanges (an exchange of debt cancellation for stock in Russian companies) before the summit, according to the Berliner Zeitung German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had also discussed the idea of applying a debt exchange mechanism to nonproliferation funding with President Putin in December 2001. Other reports suggest Germany
is cool to the idea of funding its assistance via debt exchange. Germany favors assistance projects that will utilize its expertise in nuclear material storage and transportation, such as moving naval reactors from Gremikha into temporary storage at Sayda Bay, low- and medium-level radioactive waste storage at Novaya Zemlya, plutonium reactor shut-down at Krasnoyarsk, and improving the safety of nuclear transports.[1] Germany has been assisting Russia in eliminating its chemical weapon arsenals, and is conducting talks on new programs in this area.[2]
Sources:
[1] Werner Kolhoff, "Russischer Atomschrott und deutsche Geschäfte," Berliner Zeitung, 28 June 2002, http://www.berlinonline.de.
[2] Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey, 5 July 2002; in "Russian, German officials discuss cooperation in chemical weapons scrapping," FBIS Document CEP20020705000072. 

Page last updated 24 July 2003

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.

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  SITE MAP