This file includes information concerning significant general developments
at nuclear research facilities. As of January 2004, individual facility
file descriptions will be updated on a yearly basis, personnel and
developments sections in those files will no longer be updated. However, an archive of these
materials remains available.
2/13/2004: MINATOM STRENGTHENING CONTROL OVER ATOMSTROYEKSPORT
Yevgeniy Yakovlev, director general of the energy and transport equipment
conglomerate Silovyye Mashiny,
officially replaced Kakha Bendukidze as president of
Atomstroyeksport on February 13, 2004.[1] Yakovlev’s appointment follows
the Atomstroyeksport Board of Directors' vote for the early termination Bendukidze as
Atomstroyeksport president which, according to a Silovyye mashiny press release, is part
of a pending merger of Silovyye mashiny and Obyedinennye Mashinostroitelnyye
Zavody (OMZ) announced in December 2003.[4,5]
According to Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Valeriy Govorukhin, while Bendukidze was still directing
Atomstroyeksport the two
men had a "common understanding" that a controlling block of Atomstroyeksport stock would be
returned to the state, in order to bring Atomstroyeksport under increased federal control, to
be exercised by Minatom. As of November 2003, the government controlled
just 44%
of the company’s stock.[2] The nuclear power equipment supplier OMZ, which was
directed by Bendukidze at the same time that he directed Atomstroyeksport, controlled at
least 20% of Atomstroyeksport shares.[3]
Minatom evidently hopes that Yakovlev will be able to improve on
Atomstroyeksport's recent
record for obtaining NPP contracts abroad (late last year, Atomstroyeksport failed to obtain
a contract for construction of an NPP in Finland). Along with a career in
international banking in the early 1990s, Yakovlev's experience promoting
Russian exports includes a year as the deputy director general of the mining
company Norilsk Nickel and 10 years with the Soviet Union’s Vneshtorgbank and
Vneshekonombank.[1]
4/24/2003: ATOMSTROYEKSPORT OPENS
A SUBSIDIARY IN FINLAND
Nucleonics Week reported on 24 April 2003 that
Atomstroyeksport has formed a Finnish
subsidiary. The primary goal of the newly created enterprise,
Oivavoima Oy,
is to facilitate Atomstroyeksport's bid to construct Finland's fifth nuclear
reactor. In addition, Atomstroyeksport hired the
Kreab Group, an international
public relations agency, to help with its campaign in Finland. Atomstroyeksport
is one of three companies bidding on the reactor construction with its VVER
91/99 design. The unit is based on traditional VVER-100 PWR reactor designs but has enhanced
safety and performance features. Atomstroyeksport's competitors on the project are
General Electric (US) and
Framatome ANP
(France). Atomstroyeksport also hopes
to use its Finnish subsidiary as a base for marketing nuclear technology from
Russian heavy machinery manufacturer
United Heavy Machinery (OMZ) throughout the European Union.
4/25/2003: REPORTS OF RADIOACTIVE
CONTAMINATION AT KURCHATOV DENIED
On 25 April 2003, a number of media outlets reported, quoting
anonymous sources in the medical community, that there was a radioactive leak at the
Kurchatov Institute.[1]
Authorities denied the reports. The head of Minatom's
Intergovernmental Cooperation and Information
Policy Directorate, Nikolay Shingarev, issued a
statement saying that "there
have been no accidents or incidents involving radioactive contamination of the
environment at the Kurchatov Institute, or at other facilities or organizations
in Moscow."[1,2] This statement was supported by
Radon specialists, who
took more than 200 air and soil samples at the Institute and found that
the level of radiation was normal.[1,3] Kurchatov employees told journalists
from the Ekho Moskvy radio station that reports regarding radioactive leaks appear every year on the eve of
the anniversary of the Chornobyl accident.[3]
3/2003:
NIKIET RECEIVES THE CMS GOLD AWARD
In March 2003, NIKIET and the Minsk enterprise
GP MZOR received the CMS 2003 Gold Award
from the European Nuclear Research Center (CERN) for developing hadron
calorimeters for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)
detector.[1] The calorimeters were developed within the framework of an international research project
that is developing the world's largest accelerator, the
Large Hadron Collider
(LHC). The LHC is due to be commissioned in 2006 or 2007.[2]
2/6/2003: US REJOINS ITER
PROJECT
US President George Bush has
decided that the US Department of Energy (DOE) will rejoin the
International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor (ITER)
project, after having abandoned its association with ITER in 1998. DOE says that project research could take up to 20 years, with
construction of an
experimental facility possibly beginning in 2006, and operations in 2014. Though DOE estimates its ITER contribution at $500 million over a 10 year
period, the full extent of US participation is to be determined during
negotiations. [For more information, see the
2/6/2003 entry in the
General Fuel Cycle Developments
file.
1/11/2003: KURCHATOV OPENS
COMPUTER TRAINING CENTER FOR FORMER WEAPON SCIENTISTS
On 11 January 2003, the Center for Software Training and Development was
opened at the Kurchatov Institute. The Center was created by the US
Department of Energy (DOE) and the Kurchatov Institute with assistance from the US
Industrial Coalition (a US nonprofit association of corporations and
universities) and the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative
Enterprises (Russia). This project was implemented within the framework of the DOE's
Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP)
program. The Center's mission is to provide training in software development to former
nuclear weapon scientists. The Center consists of
a training center and a software
company, Optima Program. The latter was created by the Kurchatov Institute; the
institute-based innovation and technology center, Kurchatov Technopark; Optima, a
private Russian company; and the US firm
CTG Software. The basic training program includes
courses on the C++ and Java programming languages, database management systems, and
software project management. Over a period of 2-3 years, the Center is expected
to train at least 500 scientists. Specialists trained at the Center will work
in the development of
commercial software for civilian applications. At the moment, the Center is
negotiating contracts for software development with IBM and a number of
US nuclear power plants.[1] As Kurchatov President Yevgeniy Velikhov noted at the opening ceremony, "what we expect from
the implementation of this project is a transition from the export of brains to
the export
of technologies."[2]
12/1/2002: INDIA GAINS ACCESS TO JINR
The Press Trust of India reported on 1 December 2002 that Russia has granted
India access to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
in Dubna. The decision was made in advance of a visit by President Vladimir
Putin to India, where issues of nuclear cooperation are to be discussed. An
Indian delegation was expected to visit Dubna to discuss the details of India's
participation in advanced nuclear research. (For more information on Russian
nuclear exports to India, see the
Nuclear Exports to India file.)
9/2002: NIKIET REJECTS US PROPOSAL FOR ON-SITE OBSERVER
Nezavisimaya gazeta
newspaper reported, with a reference to NIKIET Director Boris Gabarayev, that
the United States would agree to lift sanctions on NIKIET in return for the
right to place a permanent observer at the Institute with unrestricted access to
all information and technical documentation. "Such conditions are absolutely
unacceptable to us," said Gabarayev.
8/22/2002: SRIAR ACCEPTS 800KG OF NUCLEAR
FUEL FROM BELGRADE
In a tripartate Russian-US-IAEA operation on 26
August 2002, 800kg of nuclear fuel, including 48.5kg of highly enriched
uranium, was transferred from the Vinca Institute in Belgrade to Dmitrovgrad to
be reprocessed at SRIAR reactors.[1] This effort was
undertaken as part of the IAEA Action Plan against nuclear terrorism approved by IAEA's
Board of Governors in March 2002.[2] The fuel for research reactors was
originally supplied to Yugoslavia by the Soviet Union during the 1980s. After
the Vinca reactors came to a standstill in 1984, fuel that had not been used was
kept at the premises of the Vinca Institute, presenting an easy target for theft.
The Yugoslav government could not ensure the proper level of security and, after the
fall of the Milosevic regime, decided to get rid of the fuel. Russia
agreed to repatriate and reprocess the fuel. The transportation costs were covered by the United
States; a large part of
the funds
designated for the environmental cleanup in Yugoslavia was provided by the Nuclear Threat Initiative.[3,4] HEU from
Yugoslavia will be turned into low-enriched uranium in SRIAR reactors making the
material impossible for use in developing nuclear weapons. SRIAR is to receive
$0.5 million for reprocessing the material.[5] The SRIAR press service reports that
the LEU fuel that will be obtained from the Yugoslav HEU fuel is enough to run
one reactor for one year.
Transportation of nuclear fuel from abroad sparked protests in Ulyanovsk oblast. SRIAR made assurances that they received fresh fuel that
had not
been used in reactors, that the fuel does not contain plutonium, and that it is not highly radioactive. SRIAR is
willing to participate in future IAEA programs for recycling nuclear
fuel that can be used by terrorists. Nuclear fuel of Soviet origin from Vietnam,
Uzbekistan, and Belarus is to be brought to Russia in the near future.[5]
5/2000: NIIYaF PROPOSES CREATION
OF SIBERIAN CENTER FOR MPC&A TRAINING
At a May 2000 MPC&A
Conference in Obninsk, NIIYaF
officials presented a proposal to establish the Siberian
Methodological and Training Center (SMTC)
for training in control and accounting of nuclear materials and physical
protection of facilities that represent a nuclear hazard. The goal of the
proposed Center would be to provide practical MPC&A
training for personnel of Minatom enterprises,
Gosatomnadzor, and other related
organizations located in the Asian part of Russia; provide MPC&A
training for students with physics
and technology majors at the Tomsk Polytechnic University;
and coordinate research on strengthening MPC&A systems and
procedures. The proposed Center would be created at the MPC&A complex of the IRT-T reactor and NIIYaF research facilities.
Last updated 8 July 2004
Comments or questions? Contact Kenley Butler at MIIS CNS:
kenley.butlerATmiis.edu
This material is produced independently for NTI
by the James Martin 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 © 2010 by MIIS.
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