Russia: Warhead Assembly and Dismantlement Facilities

Nuclear warheads have been assembled and dismantled at the following four facilities: the Start Production Association (PO Start) in Zarechnyy (Penza-19), the Elektrokhimpribor Combine in Lesnoy (Sverdlovsk-45),  the Instrument-Making Plant in Trekhgornyy (Zlatoust-36), and the Avangard Electromechanical Plant in Sarov (Arzamas-16).[1,4] These serial production facilities fall under the supervision of the Nuclear Munitions Production Department of the Ministry of Atomic Energy.[6] The Elektrokhimpribor Combine (Lesnoy) and Avangard (Sarov) handled assembly of components with fissile materials or so-called "physics packages." PO Start (Zarechnyy) was responsible for manufacturing electronic warhead components. The final assembly of warheads took place at Avangard, Elektrokhimpribor, and the Instrument-Making Plant.[2,4] According to Viktor Mikhailov (Minister of Atomic Energy from 1992 to 1998), the total capacity for assembly and disassembly of warheads at the four plants in 1992 was about 7,000 warheads per year. Total dismantlement capacity was estimated to be 5,500 to 6,000 per year.[2] Another source estimated Russia's annual dismantlement capacity at 2,000 to 2,500 warheads, at three sites: Avangard, Elektrokhimpribor, and the Instrument-Making Plant.[3] 
 
After the warheads were assembled by the plants, the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense assumed full control and responsibility over the warheads, including distribution and transportation.[1] Every six to eight years, warheads are returned to the warhead assembly plants for general maintenance and for replacement of tritium components. At the end of their life cycle, warheads are dismantled at the plants where they were originally assembled. Fissile material recovered from the dismantled warheads is recycled into new weapons, disposed of, or placed into storage.[1,7]
 
According to First Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Lev Ryabev, production of new weapons at Avangard and PO Start had ended by 2000 and warhead dismantlement at these facilities is expected to end  by 2003.[5] 
Sources:
[1] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, Oleg Bukharin, Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 34, 36.
[2] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, Oleg Bukharin, Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin  (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 49-51.
[3] Robert S. Norris and William M. Arkin, "Estimated Russian (CIS) Stockpile, September 1995," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 9-95-10/95, p. 61.
[4] Pavel Podvig, ed., Strategicheskoye yadernoye vooruzheniye Rossii (Moscow, IzdAT, 1998), pp. 88-91.
[5] Oleg Bukharin, Harold Feiveson, Frank von Hippel, and Sharon K. Weiner, Helping Russia Downsize its Nuclear Complex: A Focus on the Closed Nuclear Cities. (Princeton: Center of International Studies and Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Prinston University, June 2000), p. 14; http://www.princeton.edu/~cees/arms. 
[6] Nuclear Business Directory, IBR Guide to the Russian Nuclear Industry, 1995 (Moscow: IBR Corporation, 1995), p. 21.
[7] Oleg Bukharin, "Security of Fissile Materials in Russia," Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, No. 21, 1996, pp. 467-96. {Revised 7/21/2000 ES}

Comments or questions? Contact Elena Sokova at MIIS CNS: esokova@miis.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