The closed city of Lesnoy (formerly Sverdlovsk-45) is
the location of the Elektrokhimpribor Combine.[1] In
1947, Plant 418 was established to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU).
In the late 1950s, a portion of Plant 418 was used to house a warhead
assembly/disassembly facility and was called the Elektrokhimpribor Combine.[2] The nearby city of Nizhnyaya
Tura, site of the Nizhnyaya Tura Mechanical Plant, is sometimes included
in references to Sverdlovsk-45.[3] Cochran et al. state that Lesnoy is
the site of the Ural Electromechanical Plant, but the Nuclear Business
Directory states that the UEP is in Yekaterinburg.[4,5] The
population of Lesnoy is 58,000, with approximately 10,000 employed at the
warhead production complex.[2]
Sources:
Lesnoy, formerly Sverdlovsk-45, 200km north of
Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast
Address: Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk
Oblast, 620045
Telephone: (34342) 24373
Ministry of Atomic Energy
(Minatom) Nuclear
Munitions Production Department.[1] Formerly under the Sixth Main Directorate of Minatom.[2]
Director: Leonid Alekseyevich Polyakov
The Elektrokhimpribor Combine was opened in the late 1950s and is responsible for assembling, dismantling, and storing nuclear
warheads.[1,2]
Construction of Elektrokhimpribor began in 1947 with Plant
418, which initially produced highly enriched uranium (HEU) using an
electromagnetic separation technique.
In the late 1950s, the separation facility was redirected to
produce stable isotopes of elements such
as thallium, rubidium, zinc, and other non-uranium isotopes, while a portion of Plant 418 was used to house a warhead
assembly/disassembly facility.[2,3]
Warhead assembly/disassembly lines were established at Elektrokhimpribor to parallel the work done at the
Avangard Electromechanical Plant in Sarov
(Arzamas-16). Elektrokhimpribor eventually became Russia's largest warhead assembly
facility and is supported by two large national warhead stockpile storage sites,
one of which is located approximately 10km west of Elektrokhimpribor's main
production area.[2] As
of 2001, the
Combine serves as a temporary storage site for
fissile material components before they are sent on to the Mayak
Production Association or the Siberian
Chemical Combine for disassembly.[4] Elektrokhimpribor's other activities focus upon
using modern chemical technologies and advanced
materials processing methods in areas of nuclear power, chemistry, radiochemistry, welding,
and milk processing.[5]
The Elektrokhimpribor Combine participates in the US
Department of Energy's MPC&A program. MPC&A upgrades at
Elektrokhimpribor and Russia's three other warhead
assembly/disassembly facilities were scheduled to begin in 1998. While some portal monitors
and other equipment have been sent to these facilities, US experts have
not been given direct access to these sites. In September 1999, DOE established
a policy that no new contracts for work with the Elektrokhimpribor Combine, Avangard
Electromechanical Plant (Avangard EMZ), Instrument-Making
Plant, Start Production Association (PO Start), VNIIEF,
and VNIITF would
be signed until the issue of appropriate access
is resolved.[1] In the summer of 2000, pilot projects were begun at VNIIEF and
VNIITF. However, no new work at the assembly/disassembly facilities has
been undertaken since September 1999.[2]
8/20/2002: ARMED SOLDIER
DESERTS LESNOY
On 20 August 2002,
private Denis Bragin,
conscripted in the spring of 2002 from Samara, deserted military unit 3275 guarding Lesnoy while on duty.
Bragin wounded his fellow soldier with a knife, when the
latter attempted to stop him, and left the unit with an AK-74 Kalashnikov gun and
shells for it. According to
media reports, Bragin should not have been entrusted with a weapon as he had a history of psychological
problems.[1,2] On 23 August, RIA Novosti reported that Bragin
was detained in the outskirts of
Kachkanar, Sverdlovsk
oblast. He made no attempt to resist arrest. The police recovered the stolen weapon and ammunition.[3]
3/21/2002: ARRESTED CHECHEN ARMS DEALER RETAINED ACCESS
PASS TO LESNOY
On 21 March 2002, Sverdlovsk police
detained three armed Chechens engaged in arms trafficking. One
of the detainees, Roman Tasukhanov, had a valid pass allowing unrestricted
access to Lesnoy. During a search of the detainees' houses, the police also
found a stockpile of weapons, including explosives, detonators, and
remote-control explosive devices. Both the local police and FSB insisted
at first that the pass was fake or had been found or bought. But Nikolay Sorokin,
the case investigator, told Izvestiya afterwards that an examination had proven the
authenticity of the pass. The special security service in Lesnoy issues such
access passes only to permanent residents or to their visiting close
relatives. According to Sorokin, Tasukhanov, whose father was a military
officer and lived in Lesnoy before moving to Chechnya, kept the pass and could
have entered Lesnoy any time. However, Tasukhanov and his accomplices claim
that they did not plan any terrorist attacks on the closed city or nuclear
facility.
11/6/2000: SOLDIER COMMITS SUICIDE
AFTER SHOOTING FELLOW GUARDS
On the night of 6 November 2000,
Private Yevgeniy Losev, while on guard-duty at Elektrokhimpribor
Combine, opened fire on his fellow soldiers and then committed suicide. Two guards, including
Lieutenant Aleksandr Kvetkin,
the head of the guard squad, were killed, and two other soldiers were seriously injured. The military unit in Lesnoy
where the incident took place had always been considered exemplary and
trouble-free.[1,2] Losev,
conscripted from the town of Kopeysk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, had never demonstrated
aggressive inclinations during his one and a half years of military service.[3]
He had never
complained of abuse by older soldiers nor been addicted to drugs or alcohol.[4] The investigation initiated
by the Military Prosecutor's office discovered letters written by Losev indicating
he had experienced psychological problems.[1,2]
5/22/99: MINATOM AND SVERDLOVSK OBLAST GOVERNOR
LOBBY FOR CONVERSION
On 22 May 1999, Minister of Atomic Energy Yevgeniy
Adamov, Sverdlovsk Oblast Governor Eduard Rossel, and Russian journalists
traveled to Lesnoy, where Adamov disclosed some of the decisions made at
the Security Council meeting held
in late April.[1,2] According to Kommersant, Adamov and Rossel announced
that the state would begin repayment of its 350 million ruble debt ($14.1
million as of 22 May 1999), which had accumulated over four to five months,
to Elektrokimpribor Combine.[1] The Combine's employees also received back
wages for January to March 1999 and production during this time reportedly
exceeded 90 percent capacity.[2] Although Adamov hinted that Elektrokhimpribor
Combine could receive a state order "for other nuclear weapons components,"
Rossel advised Combine employees that they should concentrate on conversion
activities rather than rely on state orders for their livelihood.[1] Kommersant
reported that the Elektrokhimpribor Combine's ratio of non-military production
to defense production is roughly equal. Elektrokhimpribor Combine concluded
an agreement with Gazprom to manufacture 2.5 billion rubles ($100.9 million
as of 22 May 1999) worth of oil, gas, and electrical equipment, and this
agreement may be expanded to include repair of gas valve fittings.[1,2]
In spite of the lucrative Gazprom contract, the Combine was unable to pay
suppliers for raw materials it used.[2] According to Izvestiya,
Adamov also announced that Minatom would fund the construction of a nuclear
waste storage facility, which would house dismantled missile components
for 200-300 years.[2]
10/98: ELEKTROKHIMPRIBOR STRUGGLES TO KEEP WORKERS EMPLOYED
Elektrokhimpribor Combine General Director Leonid Polyakov, in an interview with Uralskiy rabochiy, defended his decision to shorten the
work week at the Combine from five to four days. According to
Polyakov, this measure was
taken in response to criticism from Minatom regarding Elektrokhimpribor's policy
of keeping
the same size workforce despite a five-fold reduction in state
defense orders.
Polyakov argues that since Elektrokhimpribor
employs every fifth resident of Lesnoy and almost all the rest of city's population are their relatives, layoffs would create
a social crisis in the city. Polyakov believes that new
civilian activities, such as production of ultra-dispersed diamonds, stable isotopes,
and oil and gas equipment, will eventually help keep workers fully employed.[1]
Elektrokhimpribor is one of the world's two producers of stable isotopes by the electromagnetic method [the other one is in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA]. These isotopes are
used in diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular system, joints,
brain, and
endocrine system. However, the Russian market is not able to afford the combine's production and thus most of it is sold
to foreign customers.[2]
Nizhnyaya Tura, Sverdlovsk Oblast
DIRECTOR: Yevgeniy A. Karpov
Nizhnyaya Tura Machine Building Plant is involved in the
production of weapons, weapons technology, and equipment for reprocessing and
storing nuclear waste.[1] NTMP falls under Minatom's Sixth Main Directorate.[2]
Last updated 9 October 2002
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.
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