LOCATION: Sergiyev Posad (formerly Zagorsk)
Address: Sergiyev Posad-7, Moscow Oblast 141300
Telephone: (095) 584-9997, (095) 584-9942
[Katalog "Kompyuternaya Rossiya", http://www.catalog.ru.] {Entered 10/7/99 JET}
SUBORDINATION: Ministry of Defense, 12th Main Directorate
[Proceedings from the Conference "Rezhim transparentnosti v otnoshenii arsenalov yadernykh boyegolovok," Center for Arms Control, Energy, and Environmental Studies, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 9-10 November 1998, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology website, http://www.armscontrol.ru/.../publications/tr1198.htm.]
ADMINISTRATION:
Head: Vladimir Lobarev
[Prisyaga, 16 November 1997; in "Television Program Summary 160630: MRT 97-651," FBIS Document FTS19971119000591.]
Chief Scientific Associate: Leonid Yevterev
[Leonid S. Yevterev et al., "Expert Appraisal: Fighting Fire with Fire: Underground Nuclear Explosions Can Be Used To Destroy Accumulated Radioactive Wastes Safely, Quickly and Economically," Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, No. 23, 18-24 June 1999, p. 4; in "Nuc Explosion To Destroy Radioactive Waste," FBIS Document FTS19990625000139.]
ACTIVITIES:
The activities of this institute are highly classified. In addition to the naval and space propulsion research noted above, TsFTI reportedly conducts research on protecting military equipment from the effects of nuclear weapons [1,2] and on information security [3]. The institute's research may include the effects of nuclear weapons on computers. Also, in conjunction with the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) in Sarov (Arzamas-16) and other institutes, TsFTI has developed a technique to dispose of spent fuel and radioactive waste by using underground nuclear explosions to vitrify the materials in tunnels at the Central Atomic Test Site at Novaya Zemlya. (For more details, please see the 5/6/97 entry in the Naval Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Developments file.)[4] In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin formed a task force to prepare a proposal for the implementation of this technique, in order to find a solution to the problem of disposing of spent fuel, nuclear reactors, and radioactive waste from nuclear powered submarines.  The proposal met with opposition over the possibility that the explosions might violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).   Nevertheless, at Yeltsin's behest TsFTI developed a proposal for implementing the project, which never came to fruition.[5]  In June 1999, TsFTI Chief Scientific Associate Leonid Yevterev and several other scientists published an article in Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, again making an argument for the implementation of their plan.[4]
Sources:
[1] N. Yureva, "Vot kakiye u nas partnery," Gorodskoy kuryer, 24 December 1997.
[2] NISNP Discussion with Russian Nuclear Physicist, December 1999, RUS 9912.
[3] Katalog "Kompyuternaya Rossiya" web site, http://www.catalog.ru.
[4] Leonid Yevterev, Vladimir Klimenko, Varfolomey Korobushin, Vladimir Loborev, Anatoloy Panshin, "Klin klinom vyshivayut," Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, No. 23,  18-24 June 1999, p. 5.  {Entered 10/12/99 JET}
[5] Viktor Litovkin, "Yadernyy vzriv pod grifom 'sekretno,'" Izvestiya, 6 May 1997, p. 5. {Updated 10/15/99 TR; updated 1/18/2000 CC}
FISSILE MATERIAL:
The facility may possess 5-10kg of 90% enriched HEU in the form of fresh reactor fuel.
[CNS interview with Russian nuclear scientist, 4 December 1999.]{Entered 1/18/00 FW}
MPC&A:
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Russian Nuclear Materials Security Task Force is beginning work at an unnamed facility in Sergiyev Posad as part of their work in the naval complex.  Because of TsFTI's reported focus on naval propulsion research, it is probably the unnamed facility with which DOE is working.  If this conclusion is correct, this cooperation suggests that highly-enriched uranium (HEU) is indeed located there, since the DOE Task Force has generally focused the majority of its work on sites where HEU is located.
[US Department of Energy Russian Nuclear Materials Security Task Force website, http://www.nn.doe.gov/mpca/image/org_lrg.gif .] {Entered 10/15/99 TR}
REACTORS: Two[1] (probably impulse)[2]
Sources:
[1] Interfax, 23 October 1997; in "'Majority' of Nuclear Plants in Moscow Area Not in Use," FBIS Document FTS19971023000797.
[2] NISNP Discussion with Russian Nuclear Physicist, December 1999, RUS 9912.
COMMENTS:
The reactors are reportedly used for naval and space propulsion research.
[NISNP Discussion with Russian Nuclear Scientist, July 1999.]{Entered 10/15/99 TR}
 
ARCHIVED TSFTI DEVELOPMENTS (For more recent developments, see the Research Facilities Developments file):
 
6/18/99: TSFTI AND VNIIEF PROPOSE USING NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
In an effort to address the problem of radioactive waste disposal, the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, the Central Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense and several other organizations have for the past three decades engaged in the development of nuclear explosion technology to dispose of highly radioactive wastes. The method, which entirely eliminates the waste, involves the use of underground nuclear explosions. It requires the excavation of an underground chamber approximately 600m below the ground in an aluminosilicate rock mass with a low volatile content. Next, containers with highly radioactive waste are isolated with special stabilizing filters. Two to three nuclear explosive devices, with a cumulative yield of 60 to 100kT of TNT, would then be detonated, and the resulting explosion and shock wave would result in the mixing and vitrification of the radioactive waste in the chamber. According to an 18 July 1999 article in Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, the explosion method is better than the traditional waste burial method in that it does not cost as much and does not require continuous monitoring, control, and security. The Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site has been identified as a possible location for such explosions. Since the detonation of nuclear devices, even for peaceful purposes, is not allowed under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the authors of the proposal call for the amendment of the treaty. If implemented, the method could address the problem of naval radioactive waste disposal, as well as the mass removal of radioactive waste associated with the planned shutdown of nuclear power plants built in the 1970s and 1980s.(For an earlier item on this topic, please see the 5/6/97 item in this file. For more information on naval reactor waste, please see the Naval Nuclear Reactor Radioactive Waste section of the NIS Profiles Database.)
[Leonid Yevterev, Vladimir Klimenko, Varfolomey Korobushin, Vladimir Loborev, Anatoloy Panshin, "Klin klinom vyshivayut," Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, No. 23,  18-24 June 1999, p. 5.] {Entered 11/18/99 SK}

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 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 © 2002 by MIIS.

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