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warhead assembly and dismantlement entry, see the
Warhead Assembly and Dismantlement Facilities
file.
The closed city of Trekhgornyy (formerly Zlatoust-36) was established in the
mid 1950s to serve as the site for one of Russia's nuclear warhead assembly and disassembly
facilities, the Instrument-Making Plant.[1]
Trekhgornyy's current population is approximately 33,000.[2] Two national
warhead stockpile storage sites associated with the Plant are located approximately 10km from Trekhgornyy.
The
Instrument-Making Plant and Trekhgornyy's city administration have been jointly involved
in conversion efforts at the Plant and business development projects in the
city. Since 1997, the city's business development efforts have
increased. One successful city development project, a telecommunications equipment plant, is a joint venture between the firm
Ron-Telekom and the Canadian
telecommunications company NORTEL. In November 2000, 34 three-year
investment projects, worth approximately 6 billion
rubles (approximately $216 million as of 10 November 2000), began in Trekhgornyy.[3] A large
ski resort, another of the city's business development projects, opened outside
Trekhgornyy in 2000 and is expected to provide up to 2,500 jobs.[1]
Trekhgornyy (formerly Zlatoust-36), Chelyabinsk Oblast, approximately
180km west of Chelyabinsk.
Address: 13 Zarechnaya ulitsa,
Trekhgornyy, Chelyabinsk Oblast, 456080
Telephone: (35111) 5-51-21,
5-51-23, 5-55-39, 5-58-37, 5-52-21, 5-51-81
Fax: (35111) 6-04-23
Homepage: http://imwp.tpi.ac.ru
Ministry
of Atomic Energy (Minatom), Department of Nuclear Weapons Production
(formerly Sixth Main Directorate)
Director:
Aleksandr Vasilyevich Dolinin
The Instrument-Making Plant is a nuclear warhead assembly, disassembly,
and storage site. US satellite imagery indicates that most of the warhead
dismantlement done so far has taken place at Trekhgornyy.[1] It
has been reported that the Instrument-Making Plant installs "physics packages" into
ICBM and SLBM warheads.[2] According
to Minatom's downsizing plan of June 1998, the
Instrument-Making Plant and Lesnoy (Sverdlovsk-45)
will continue with their current weapons assembly/disassembly activities into
the foreseeable future.[2] The number of defense program workers at the
warhead assembly facility was expected to decrease to 2,800 in 2001.[2] Since
1978 the Instrument-Making Plant has been producing safety equipment for the
Soviet nuclear energy industry. After the 1986
Chernobyl accident, the
manufacture of nuclear safety and radiation control systems became one of the
priorities of the Instrument-Making Plant. The Plant produces AKRB-08 third-generation
radiation control systems and plans to start the production of the
ASRK-2000 fifth-generation complete automatic system of radiation control
developed in cooperation with the Moscow company
SNIIP-Sistematom.[4] The Plant also manufactures a variety of civilian
products such as border poles, boats, medical equipment, bathtubs, car
trunks, and polyethylene pipes.[3,4]
The Instrument-Making Plant in Trekhgornyy participates in the US Department of Energy
(DOE) MPC&A
Program. MPC&A upgrades at the Instrument-Making Plant, Zarechnyy
(Penza-19), Lesnoy
(Sverdlovsk-45), and Sarov
(Arzamas-16) 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 would be signed for work at the Instrument-Making Plant,
Zarechnyy
(Penza-19), Lesnoy
(Sverdlovsk-45), Sarov
(Arzamas-16), VNIIEF,
and VNIITF 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]
11/29/2002: RUSSIAN ACCOUNTS
CHAMBER UNCOVERS HUGE TAX LOSSES IN TREKHGORNYY
On
29 November 2002, the Accounts Chamber of the
Russian Federation examined the
results of the 2002 tax collection audit in Trekhgornyy and found out that 7.6 billion rubles (about $239 million as of 29 November 2002)
in taxes were undercollected in 1999-2002.[1] According to Uralpolit.ru, this figure exceeds
the annual
budgets of the two largest cities in the Urals--Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk
(5 and 3.5 billion rubles, respectively).[2] According to the review, the Yukos oil
concern profited most from the tax relief arrangements in Trekhgornyy. The
city lost 5.1 billion rubles (over $160 million) because Yukos affiliates paid their taxes in 1999 with
the company's interest-bearing notes. The Accounts Chamber claims that such
payments contradict Russian tax legislation and are a "covert form of tax deferral."
The Chamber also found that the city administration spent 2.3 billion rubles
(over $72 million) on expenses not directly related to Trekhgornyy's needs, such as the
creation of a network of gasoline stations in 11 regions
of Russia and the construction of a health resort in Sochi on the Black Sea coast.[1,2]
Trekhgornyy's administration questioned the results of the audit. Mayor Nikolay Lubenets told Uralpolit.ru that the Chamber reviewed the work of the city's
tax collection branch rather than the city administration.[2] The Accounts Chamber announced
it would send the audit results to Russia's Ministry of Taxation, Ministry of Finance, Federal Tax Police Service, Federal Assembly, and
Presidential Envoy to the Urals
Federal Okrug Petr
Latyshev.[1]
5/1/2002: BREACH OF TREKHGORNYY
AIR SPACE
On 1 May 2002, an AN-30 aircraft broke into the restricted flight
zone over Trekhgornyy and
performed prohibited air maneuvers at an altitude of 500m.[1]
Deputy Mayor Aleksandr Orel told Ural Press Inform that the plane's
crew, assigned by the General Staff of Russia's Ministry of
Defense to carry out aerial
reconnaissance photography of the Chelyabinsk-Ufa highway, for an unclear
reason deviated from their designated course.[2] Stanislav Neginskiy, a local FSB
spokesman, did not confirm media reports that Trekhgornyy's air defense unit opened
warning fire on the plane and that the AN-30's crew was detained immediately after the
aircraft's forced landing
in the Yekaterinburg Koltsovo airport.[3] According to Chelyabinskiy
rabochiy, the air space over Chelyabinsk Oblast is unprotected, since
air defense forces deployed earlier in the Southern Urals have been
disbanded, and military bases around Trekhgornyy are irreparably
demolished.[1] A criminal case against the AN-30's pilots will be initiated if
investigation shows that the crew made pictures of secret defense enterprises located in Trekhgornyy.[3]
9/26-27/2001: MINISTER OF ATOMIC ENERGY VISITED
TREKHGORNYY
From 26 to 27 September 2001, Russian Minister of
Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev visited Trekhgornyy. Rumyantsev
participated in the meeting of heads of ZATO administrations and nuclear
facilities initiated by the Closed Cities Association to discuss interaction
between the authorities of the closed cities and Minatom's nuclear facilities.
(For details about the meeting, see the 9/26-28/2001 entry in the
Closed Cities Developments section.)
Rumyantsev
also visited the nuclear facilities in Trekhgornyy and discussed conversion
programs and the
role of nuclear facilities in the closed cities' social and economic development.
6/16/99: NUCLEAR ASSOCIATION MEETING DISCUSSES
FUTURE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPLEX
On 16 June 1999, Atompressa reported that
the Council of the Association of Professional Organizations of the Nuclear
Weapons Complex met in Trekhgornyy to discuss problems of "strategic character."
According to Atompressa, Minatom had recently paid most of
the wage arrears owed to specialists working in the nuclear weapons complex.
During the meeting, council members discussed the lack of funding to implement
conversion projects and the problem of finding employment for those specialists
who lose their jobs to downsizing the complex. There was a general consensus
that considerable financial investments would be necessary to efficiently
produce competitive goods. The council recognized that the high level of
security associated with the closed cities introduces additional obstacles
to conversion projects in these cities. Those in attendance further agreed
that attracting young specialists to work in the nuclear weapons complex
had become more difficult in these circumstances. Representatives
from Lesnoy (Sverdlovsk-45) and Trekhgornyy
(Zlatoust-36) criticized the government's decision to place defense orders
with enterprises outside of the nuclear weapons complex. According to them,
if these orders were transferred to Lesnoy's Elektrokhimpribor
or Trekhgornyy's Instrument-Making Plant, more jobs would be preserved
and in turn, this would lead to greater cooperation within the nuclear
weapons complex. The Council plans to develop a similar proposal for discussion
with the appropriate departments within Minatom.
3/5/99: TREKHGORNYY MAYOR: CITY'S WELFARE LINKED
TO FACTORY
In an interview with Chelyabinskiy rabochiy published
5 March 1999, Trekhgornyy Mayor Nikolay Lubenets said that the Instrument-Making
Plant, which employs most Trekhgornyy residents, continues to impact the
social and economic situation within the city. Lubenets called Moscow's
failure to pay plant employees "insulting" and asserted that the city does
everything it can, including deducting taxes from municipal employees'
salaries, to ensure that workers receive "some kind of money." Lubenets
added that he expects the money will be repaid once the state settles accounts
with the plant. The mayor acknowledged that the city itself is in
debt, having borrowed roughly 40 billion "old" rubles. According to Lubenets,
the city has invested funds from the municipal budget into new production
facilities, which will help guarantee the city's financial independence.
Lubenets refuted claims that taxes collected from businesses that relocated
to the Trekhgornyy investment zone caused other cities to lose budgetary
revenues. Lubenets argued that the ZATO investment zone had only been in
effect for about a year and a half but the closed cities had been supporting
the nuclear enterprises without state assistance for the past eight years.
He further stated that negative reactions to the ZATO investment zone appear
every time President Yeltsin shuffles the government. Lubenets said
that he hoped the State Duma, which was debating an amendment to the law
at the time the interview was conducted, would allow the investment zones
to remain intact.
9/19/96: ZLATOUST WORKERS READY TO STRIKE
According to Vladimir Kashkin, Vice Chairman of the Russian Union of Atomic-Industry
Workers, the workers at the Zlatoust-36 defense plant are prepared to strike
if they do not receive back wages soon. According to Kashkin, nuclear defense
enterprises have to date received only 36 percent of what the federal budget
allocated, and of that, only part is in cash, with the rest disbursed as
credits.
Page last updated 16 December 2003
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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