Established in 1948 in Chelyabinsk-65 (now known as Ozersk), PO Mayak played an important role in the Soviet nuclear weapons program. The facility was one of the several plants dedicated to producing plutonium and tritium, as well as fabricating highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium warhead components.[1] PO Mayak produced components for the Soviet Union's first nuclear device, the RSD-1, exploded in August 1949.[2] By the end of the Cold War, five plutonium production reactors, five tritium production reactors, several reprocessing plants, and a plutonium metallurgy plant were in operation at the facility. The radiochemical plant involved in separating weapon-grade plutonium was shut down in 1987, and all production at the eight reactors had been halted by 1991.[3]

At present, PO Mayak's Plant 20 is the only facility that remains involved in fissile component production for Russia's nuclear weapons program (although Rosatom has contemplated moving plutonium component fabrication to the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk). [4] Two of its functioning reactors, Ruslan and Lyudmila, are chiefly involved in the production of various isotopes, but they also maintain a tritium production capability. Both of these reactors are also powered by HEU.[5] Additionally, PO Mayak is involved in the storage of HEU and plutonium and the dismantlement of fissile components.[6] For an overview of Russia's HEU policy and the full list of Russia's facilities using HEU, see the Russia Civilian HEU profile.

PO Mayak's civilian work involves the separation and storage of a variety of spent fuels (including power reactor fuel, research reactor fuel under the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Program, and spent fuel from decommissioned submarines); the purification and conversion to uranium oxide of weapon-grade HEU (under the U.S.-Russia HEU-LEU program); and the production of radioisotopes.[7] A small experimental MOX fuel production facility, which has been in operation since 1993, also produces fuel for the BN-600 fast breeder reactor at Beloyarsk.[8]

Over its six decades of processing and storing spent fuel and radioactive waste, PO Mayak has a troubling history of accidents and environmental contamination. Between 1948 and the 1960s, the facility dumped radioactive waste into nearby waters.[9] In 1957, the practice of returning high-level radioactive reprocessing waste to temporary storage tanks resulted in a massive (chemical) explosion, known as the Kyshtym Disaster.[10] The facility has vitrified radioactive waste since the 1980s and it also still retains numerous burial sites for low- and intermediate- level wastes.

PO Mayak has received multi-year funding and assistance from the U.S. and European governments in improving its materials protection, control, and accounting system. [11] Between 1994 and 2003, the United States and Russia also planned and constructed the Fissile Material Storage Facility at Mayak, designed to securely store plutonium and HEU from dismantled nuclear weapons. After the U.S. and Russian governments resolved multiple disagreements on transparency, access, and liability, the facility began accepting fissile materials in 2006.[12]

Sources:
[1] Oleg Bukharin, "Downsizing Russia's Nuclear Warhead. Production Infrastructure," The Nonproliferation Review, Spring 2001, pg. 117.
[2] "История в датах" [History in dates], PO Mayak website, undated, www.po-mayak.ru (accessed 5 October 2012).
[3] Pavel Podvig, Consolidating Fissile Materials in Russia's Nuclear Complex, IPFM research report, May 2009, pg. 8, www.ipfm.org
[4] Pavel Podvig, Consolidating Fissile Materials in Russia's Nuclear Complex, IPFM research report, May 2009, pg. 7, www.ipfm.org
[5] Pavel Podvig, "History of Highly Enriched Uranium Production in Russia," Science & Global Security, 19:46-67, 2011.
[6] Pavel Podvig, Consolidating Fissile Materials in Russia's Nuclear Complex, IPFM research report, May 2009, pg. 8, www.fissilematerials.org
[7] "О предприятии" [About the enterprise], PO Mayak website, undated, www.po-mayak.ru (accessed 5 October 2012).
[8] "Russia's Nuclear Fuel Cycle," World Nuclear Association, August 2012, www.world-nuclear.org (accessed 5 October 2012).
[9] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, and Oleg A. Bukharin, Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 100.
[10] Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, and Oleg A. Bukharin, Making the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), p. 99-114.
[11] Pavel Podvig, "U.S. Assistance in Securing Fissile Materials in Russia," IPFM blog, 5 February 2010, www.fissilematerials.org (accessed 5 October 2012); Pavel Podvig, "Improvements of the MPC&A System at Mayak," IPFM blog, 21 January 2010, www.fissilematerials.org (accessed 5 October 2012).
[12] Pavel Podvig, "Mayak Storage Facility is in Business," Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces blog, 15 November 2006, www.russianforces.org (accessed 5 October 2012).