The city of Novouralsk, formerly Sverdlovsk-44, was
established in 1941.[1] It is located 67km northwest of Yekaterinburg. In 1946, following the decision of the Soviet government to
expedite the development of the Russian nuclear complex, the construction of the Urals
Electrochemical Combine (UEKhK) began
in Novouralsk.
In 1949, UEKhK began producing
highly enriched uranium (HEU)
for the first Soviet uranium-type nuclear bomb. UEKhK is now the largest
enrichment facility in Russia.[2,3] The city's population is 96,000, including
approximately 15,000 UEKhK employees[4]. Today Novouralsk maintains its status
as a closed city.[3] Sources:
[1] Novouralsk [undated promotional
brochure], (Moscow: Ofset Print Moskva), p. 5.
[2] "Istoriya goroda
Novouralska," The Official Web Site of Novouralsk,
http://www.novouralsk-adm.ru/go/history.
[3]"Sverdlovsk-44," GlobalSecurity.org Web Site,
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/sverdlovsk-44_nuc.htm.
[4]
Oleg Bukharin,
Frank von Hippel, Sharon Weiner, "Conversion and Job Creation in Russia's
Closed Nuclear Cities: An Update, based on a Workshop held in Obninsk, Russia,
June 27-29, 2000," Program on Nuclear Policy Alternatives of the Center for
International Studies and the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies,
Princeton University, November 2000; in Ransac.org Web Site,
http://www.ransac.org.
{Entered 1/26/01 GD} {Updated 9/23/03 DS}
URALS ELECTROCHEMICAL COMBINE (UEKhK)
Also referred to as the Urals Electrochemical
Integrated Plant (UEIP)
LOCATION: Novouralsk, formerly Sverdlovsk-44 (also known as Verkh-Neyvinsk or
Yekaterinburg-44)
Address: 2 Dzerzhinskaya
ulitsa, Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia 624130
Telephone: (34370) 92424
Fax: (34370)9-4141, 5-7333,
5-6666
[UEKhK homepage, http://www.ricon.e-burg.ru]
{Entered 6/9/00 FW, Updated 11/2/2000 GD} HOMEPAGE:http://www.ricon.e-burg.ru
{Entered
6/9/00 FW} SUBORDINATION: Federal Atomic Energy Agency STRUCTURE: UEKhK consists of an electrochemical converter engineering plant, an electromechanical
plant, and an instrumentation plant.[1] In 1973,
"Chelnok," a special division for implementing deliveries to foreign customers,
was established.[2]
Sources: [1] Nuclear Business Directory
(Moscow: IBR Corporation, 1995) pp. 74-75. [2] "Uralskiy Elektrokhimicheskiy Kombinat
otmechayet 25-letiye okazaniya eksportnykh uslug po obogashcheniyu urana,"
Atompressa,
No.
17 (301), May 1998, p. 2. {Entered 5/20/99 VT} ACTIVITIES: UEKhK's main activities are uranium enrichment and
the development of centrifuge technology, as well as the manufacture of
instruments and industrial systems for the nuclear industry.[10] The Ural
Electrochemical Combine, site of the Soviet Union's first gaseous
diffusion enrichment plant, began operating in 1949. In 1950, certain technical
difficulties were resolved and UEKhK began producing tens of kilograms
of 90 percent enriched uranium. The original plant, called D-1, was extended
to include plant D-3 in 1951, and plants D-4 and D-5 in 1953.[1] Minatom
officials said that Sverdlovsk-44 was the only plant ever used to produce
weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium.[2] According to a Russian nuclear
official, production of HEU ceased in 1989.[3] According
to Bukharin, up to 30% U-235 (medium enriched uranium) may still be produced
for non-weapons purposes at UEKhK.[4]
The combine participated in the development of Russian centrifuge
technology, [1, 5] has used seventh-generation
gas centrifuges since 1996,[9] and has developed eighth-generation centrifuges.[10]UEKhK
now
produces LEU using centrifuge technology, with an annual capacity of nine
million SWU.[6] It is one of four Russian enrichment facilities (UEKhK,
SKhK, EKhZ, and AEKhK); and according to V. Kornilov,
former UEKhK director, in 1997, UEKhK's output was equal to the aggregate
output of SKhK, EKhZ
and AEKhK.[10] According to NuclearFuel,
all of these plants also produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6), but Cochran,
Norris, and Bukharin state that only AEKhK and SKhK produce UF6.[2,1]
As part of the US-Russia HEU deal, UEKhK
blends down weapons-grade HEU removed from dismantled nuclear weapons into LEU
for sale to the US, to be used as fuel for nuclear reactors.[7] The uranium is
blended down
to 4.4 percent enrichment and packed in 2.5 MT-capacity containers for
transport to the US.[8] Since 1973, the combine has
been exporting uranium enrichment services for nuclear power plants in
the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Spain, the United States, France,
Finland, Sweden and the Republic of Korea. UEKhK has been assigned a $200
million export quota by Minatom. In 1997, UEKhK held 17 percent of the uranium
enrichment services market in Russia, the CIS, and former socialist countries.
Since 1996, the combine has been producing a wide range of civilian
products.[10]
According to UEKhK
Director Anatoliy
Knutarev, enrichment services account for up to 86% of UEKhK's
output and 97% of its revenues. As of October 2001, UEKhK employed nearly 17,000
people, 19% of whom were young people under 30.[11]
Sources: [1] Thomas Cochran, Robert S. Norris, Oleg Bukharin,
Making
the Russian Bomb: From Stalin to Yeltsin, Westview, Boulder: 1995,
pp. 183-184. [2] Mark Hibbs, "Minatom Says Its Centrifuge Plants are
Competitive With Those of Urenco," Nuclear Fuel, 10/26/92, pp. 3-4. [3] CISNP discussion with Russian nuclear official,
December 1995. [4] Oleg Bukharin, "Security of
Fissile Materials In Russia," Annual Review of Energy and Environment,
1996, vol.21, p.471. {Entered 7/29/97, SA} [5] Oleg Bukharin, "Nuclear Safeguards And Security In
The Former Soviet Union," SURVIVAL, Winter, 1994-1995, pp. 61, 63. [6] "World Nuclear Industry Handbook 1995," Nuclear
Engineering International, p. 123. [7] Leonard S. Spector and William C. Potter, "Nuclear
Successor States of the Soviet Union: Nuclear Weapon and Sensitive Export
Status Report," A Cooperative project of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, July 1995, p.
22. [8] Sergey Borisov, "Yadernaya energetika: tsifri i fakti,"
Kazakhstanskaya
pravda, 5/15/96, p. 7. [9] "Uralskiy Elektrokhimicheskiy
Kombinat otmechayet 25-letiye okazaniya eksportnykh uslug po obogashcheniyu
urana," Atompressa, No. 17 (301), May 1998, p. 2. [10] "Uralskiy Elektrokhimicheskiy
- krupnyy plan," Atompressa, No. 16 (252), April 1997, p. 2-3. {Entered
5/20/99 VT} [11] "Budushcheye
UEKhK," Atompressa, No. 41, October 2001, p. 2. {Updated 9/18/2002 DA}
MPC&A: UEKhK participates in the US
Department of Energy (DOE) MPC&A program. An initial visit was completed
in July 1996, but MPC&A work did not begin
until September 1997. UEKhK participates in the US-Russia
HEU Agreement, and accordingly, MPC&A upgrades
focus on those areas that downblend HEU to low enriched uranium (LEU).[1,2]
Phase one of the
upgrades involves: portal monitors for both personnel and vehicles, enhancements
to the interim storage facility and perimeter of Technical Area One, and
site-wide infrastructure projects designed to enhance future MPC&A
upgrades.[2] Many MPC&A upgrades remain in the planning phase. DOE maintains a permanent office
outside the closed city as part
of the US-Russia HEU Agreement. US
monitors have access to equipment that monitors the HEU to LEU down blending.
They also take inventory of uranium hexaflouride cylinders, perform transparency
visits when necessary,[3] and maintain relevant records.[4]
According to an August 2000 RANSAC report, MPC&A progress at UEKhK
has been slow because it receives a large amount of revenue from the US-Russia HEU Agreement
and other exports. As a result, management at UEKhK has little financial
incentive to concentrate on
MPC&A contracts and related issues.[5]
4/10/2003: NOVOURALSK WORKERS REPORTEDLY FACE
HARD ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
On 10 April 2003, UralPolit.Ru reported that difficult economic conditions have
created a suicidal mood among Novouralsk workers who balance "on the verge of
hunger and poverty." According to the source, there are currently 3,000
workers on forced leaves of absence in Novouralsk. ["Rabochiy
Uralskogo avtomotornogo zavoda pokonchil s soboy iz-za goloda i nishchety,"
UralPolit.Ru, http://www.uralpolit.ru/, 10
April 2003.] {Entered 5/15/2003
DA}
7/9/2002: POWER TO NOVOURALSK AND UEKhK
CUT OFF
On 9 July 2002, power to Novouralsk
and the Urals Electrochemical Combine was cut off for ten minutes,
according to an ITAR-TASS
report. UEKhK Chief Engineer Anatoliy Obyddenov told
ITAR-TASS that the combine's safety system worked effectively, preventing the
power outage from endangering the local population or the environment. According to media reports, the incident could have
been caused either by firing exercises at the nearby Nizhniy Tagil
shooting range, or by a breakdown in the power grid of Sverdlovenergo, the
regional
power utility.[1,2] Sources:
[1] "Vo vtornik na 10 minut polnostyu lishilsya elektrosnabzheniya zakrytyy
gorod Novouralsk i yego gradoobrazuyushcheye predpiyatiye, strategicheskiy
obyekt atomnoy otrasli - Uralskiy elektrokhimicheskiy kombinat (UEKhK),"
Nuclear.ru Web Site, http://www.nuclear.ru/, 10 July 2002.
[2] "Sverdlovskaya oblast. Podrobnosti ChP na uranovom zavode v Novouralske,"
Regions.ru Web Site, http://www.regions.ru/, 11 July 2002. {Entered 8/14/2002
DA}
10/2001: UEKhK WORKS ON
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
An article in the October 2001 issue of Atompressa based on UEKhK
Director
Anatoliy Knutarev's address to the Minatom Board on the Combine's
economic and social development program for 2002-2004 indicated that UEKhK revenues
in
2001 had declined due to a shift [from a contract system] to
subcontracting arrangements with Tekhsnabeksport. To overcome
the negative effects of the changes, Knutarev said that the development program,
UEKhK's first, will include
the modernization of UEKhK
technology and equipment, new product R&D, measures to increase productivity,
personnel training, and the provision of additional benefits intended to attract young
specialists. ["Budushcheye
UEKhK," Atompressa, No. 41, October 2001, p. 2.] {Entered 9/18/2002 DA}
12/26/2000: SPENT FUEL STORAGE FACILITY
UNWELCOME IN NOVOURALSK On 26
December 2000, the Region-Inform news agency reported that no decision has been
reached regarding
the construction of an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in
Novouralsk. The Ural Regional
Department of Natural Resources is questioning the safety of such a facility.
Documents submitted to the department list the facility completion date as 2010. Before the facility
becomes operational, spent nuclear fuel is supposed to be stored in containers
in a guarded open-air area protected by barbed wire.
Department Director Nadezhda Sergeyeva doubts that the department would grant a
permit for this facility. Novouralsk residents also oppose
the construction of the facility: according to recent opinion polls, 65% of city
residents are against it, even though this closed city is traditionally
dependent on nuclear industry enterprises. ["Vopros o razmeshchenii khranilishcha radioaktivnykh
otkhodov na territorii Novouralska poka ostayetsya otkrytym,"
Region-Inform, 26 December 2000; in Integrum Techno, http://www.integrum.com.]
{Entered 8/6/2001 ES}
12/2/2000: STORAGE FACILITY FOR NATURAL URANIUM TO BE
BUILT IN NOVOURALSK On 2 December 2000 NTV reported
that construction of a new storage facility for natural uranium is under way
in Novouralsk. It is meant for storing 32t of natural uranium, which
will be used to downblend HEU under the US-Russia
HEU deal.
Opinion polls in Novouralsk show that 52% of the city residents do not oppose
the construction of the facility, evidently for economic reasons: UEKhK
employs almost half of Novouralsk residents.
["V Sverdlovskoy oblasti stroitsya novyy
sklad dlya khraneniya prirodnogo urana," NTV-Novosti, 2 December 2000; in
Integrum Techno, http://www.integrum.com]
{Entered 3/16/2001 OC}
10/27/2000: FSB CONDUCTED ANTITERRORIST EXERCISES IN NOVOURALSK From 10 through 18 October 2000, the Federal Security Service (FSB)
Directorate for Sverdlovsk Oblast conducted a series of antiterrorist exercises
in Novouralsk to test the physical protection system at the Ural Electrochemical
Combine. The exercises were also meant to test coordination and cooperation
among local and regional authorities, the FSB, the Ministry of the Internal
Affairs, and the Ministry of Emergencies.
["Chekisty na yadernom obyekte,"
Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye, 27 October 2000; in Integrum Techno,
http://www.integrum.com.] {Entered 5/16/2001 OC}
9/97: UEKhK BEGINS ENRICHING U TAILS FOR FOREIGN CLIENTS, REPLACING
CENTRIFUGES As part of a US-Russian agreement, in September 1997 the Ural Electrochemical
Combine (UEKhK) began enriching uranium tails for Minatom and the German-British-Dutch
Uranium Enrichment Company (Urenco). UEKhK enriches the uranium tails in
two separate production lines. The first line enriches the tails to 1.5
percent U-235 (LEU), the specification set by the American Society for
Testing of Materials, for future blending with HEU under the US-Russian
HEU Deal. UEKhK, formerly the largest HEU manufacturer in the Soviet
Union, now does most of the enrichment for Tekhnsabeksport's foreign customers.
A second operation enriches the uranium tails to 0.71 percent U-235 (natural
uranium equivalent) for sale to Urenco. The cost to upgrade the tails was
approximately $119.9 million.
UEKhK is also involved in a Minatom project with SverdNIIkhimmash (Yekaterinburg)
to replace enrichment centrifuges over 20 years old. SverdNIIkhimmash has
constructed two facilities to dismantle gas centrifuges that were used
to enrich uranium to 95 percent U-235. This centrifuge recovery program
is part of a larger scrap program at SverdNIIkhimmash in which Russia has
recycled over 300,000t of contaminated metal.
[Mark Hibbs and Pearl Marshall, "Urals Plant Enriching
Tails For Both Minatom And Urenco," NuclearFuel, 6 October 1997,
p. 3.] {Entered 10/12/98 LBN} 2/96: NOVOURALSK MPC&A SYSTEM IMPROVED The MPC&A system has been enhanced in Novouralsk, site of the Uralskiy
Electrochemical Combine. The measures primarily concerned stricter control
over the transfer of radioactive material and reinforcement of customs
posts.
["Na tamozhne vysokaya radiatsiya," Tyumenskiye vedomosti,
February 1996, p. 2.]
Page last updated 24 March 2004 The development section in this file is no longer being updated. For major
recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file.
Comments or questions? Contact Elena Sokova at MIIS
CNS: esokovaATmiis.edu
Fissile Material Production and Disposition
