LOCATION: Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, nearly 100km southwest of Moscow
Address: Kievskoye shosse, Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, 249020
Telephone: (08439) 639-32, 747-50, 747-37
Fax: (08439) 639-11
E-mail: fci@meteo.ru
[Obninsk City Administration Web Site, http://www.obninsk.ru/science/nii_fhi_ru.html] {entered 10/17/00 DK}
ADMINISTRATION:
Director: Viktor Georgiyevich Plotnikov 
[Obninsk City Administration Web Site, http://www.obninsk.ru/science/nii_fhi_ru.html] {entered 10/17/00 DK}
ACTIVITIES:
This institute conducts high-energy chemistry research, radiochemistry research, develops new types of materials, and produces radiopharmaceuticals.
[Obninsk City Administration Web Site, http://www.obninsk.ru/science/nii_fhi_ru.html] {entered 02/01/01 DK}
FISSILE MATERIAL: Less than 100kg of HEU in various forms.[1,2]
Sources:
[1] Correspondence with Russian nuclear specialist, 27 October 1999.
[2] V. Plotnikov et al., "US/Russian Program in Material Protection, Control, and Accounting at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry," Partnership for Nuclear Security: United States/ Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting, (US Department of Energy, December 1997).{entered 01/10/01 DK}
MPC&A:
This site participates in the US Department of Energy MPC&A program. Comprehensive upgrades were completed in 1998.
[US Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, MPC&A Program Strategic Plan (Washington, D.C.,  July 2001),  Appendix B.]{Entered 3/14/2002 KB}
 
For a description of the MPC&A work performed at this site please see the Department of Energy's December 1997 document, United States/ Former Soviet Union Program of Cooperation on Nuclear Material Protection, Control, and Accounting: Partnership for Nuclear Security.
 
REACTORS: One
NAME: VVR-Ts
TYPE: tank
POWER: 10MW
FUEL: 3.5kg, 36% enriched
OPERATOR: Russian Committee on Chemical and Petroleum Industry
COMMENTS:

MEDICAL ISOTOPE PRODUCTION:
The VVR-Ts reactor at the Karpov Institute uses 90 percent HEU targets in order to produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for medical purposes. In addition to processing HEU targets itself, the Karpov Institute also processes targets irradiated at IPPE and Tomsk. There have been some suggestions that the Karpov Institute may be interested in converting to the use of LEU targets in the future but this would first require the approval of Rosatom. In July 2009 the Karpov Institute agreed to conduct a study with Canada’s MDS Nordion, a provider of medical isotopes, into the feasibility of the Institute providing Nordion with a viable and reliable supply of Mo-99. (For more information on medical isotope production please see the Civilian uses of HEU page).

This research reactor was commissioned in 1964. The State Specialized Design Institute designed the reactor.
[List of Research Reactors, Critical and Subcritical Assemblies Supervised by Gosatomnadzor, 13 July 1992.]

Updated November 25, 2009

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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