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Plutonium Production Overview
Archived Plutonium Production Developments
Mayak Production Association (Ozersk) Mining and Chemical Combine
(Zheleznogorsk) Siberian
Chemical Combine (Seversk) For major recent developments, see the
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Developments file.
By 1987, an estimated 132 metric tons (t) of plutonium for weapons had been produced by 13 reactors at three sites: PO Mayak (in Ozersk, also known as Chelyabinsk-65), GKhK (the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk, also known as Krasnoyarsk-26), and SKhK (the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, also known as Tomsk-7).[1] The five Mayak reactors produced an estimated 55.9t of weapons-grade plutonium between 1948 and 1990, the five SKhK reactors produced 69.1t between 1955 and 1994, and the three GKhK reactors produced 44.2t between 1958 and 1994. Ten of these reactors were shut down between 1987 and 1992.[7] In the US-Russian Agreement Concerning the Shutdown of Plutonium Production Reactors and the Cessation of Use of Newly Produced Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons, signed at the 23 June 1994 meeting of the US-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technical Cooperation, Russia agreed to cease operation at all of its plutonium production reactors by 31 December 2000, with the condition that substitute energy sources for heating, which the reactors provided, would be jointly developed for these cities. Russia also agreed that no plutonium produced in these reactors in the interim would be used for weapons.[5] Any plutonium produced at these facilities was to be in oxide form, not metallic, open to verification by the United States.[9] On 12 March 2003, an addendum agreement to the 1997 US-Russian Intergovernmental Agreement Concerning Cooperation Regarding Plutonium Production Reactors was signed. [10] Under the addendum, the ADE-4 and ADE-5 reactors in Seversk and the ADE-2 reactor in Zheleznogorsk were expected to stop producing plutonium by 31 December 2005 and 31 December 2006, respectively.[11] The reactors were expected to be shut down when they were no longer necessary as heat and power sources, that is, when the existing fossil fuel plant in Seversk was refurbished and a new coal plant was completed in Zheleznogorsk.[12] Only by December 2007, however, were ADE-4 and ADE-5 allowed to operate in alternating mode, thereby decreasing production of plutonium at Seversk reactors in half. [13] Operation of the ADE-4 reactor was halted on 20 April 2008, eight months ahead of schedule, with ADE-5 following on 5 June 2008. The timeline for shutdown of the ADE-2 reactor in Zheleznogorsk is 2010.[14] Estimates of Military Plutonium Stocks In June 1999, the US Department of Energy estimated that there were 140-162t of weapons-grade plutonium in the Russian military stockpile.[8] Albright et. al estimated that there were 117-172t in 1996.[4] As of 1995, Russia was producing approximately 1.5t of weapons-grade plutonium per year from the reactors in GKhK and SKhK.[3] As of 1994, these three production reactors discharged approximately 1,200t of spent fuel annually.[2] The shuttering of SKhK's ADE-4 and ADE-5 in 2008 slashed the annual quantity of weapons-grade plutonium produced by two-thirds. Civilian Plutonium Stocks Russian civilian plutonium stockpiles consist of plutonium separated from spent nuclear fuel and plutonium still contained in spent fuel. According to the 2007 declaration of the Russian Federation to the IAEA Board of Governors, Russia had 41.1t of unirradiated separated plutonium stored at civilian reprocessing and fuel-fabrication facilities as of 31 December 2006. In addition, there were 300kg of plutonium in unirradiated MOX fuel or other forms at reactor sites, and 1t at other locations. The total amount of separated plutonium is 42.4t.[6] Plutonium contained in spent fuel at civilian reactor sites was estimated at 63t. Four metric tons of plutonium was contained in spent fuel at reprocessing plants. An additional 37t of plutonium is contained in spent fuel held at other sites. This brings the total for plutonium contained in spent fuel to 104t as of 31 December 2006.[6] Sources:
US Funding for Elimination of Russian Weapons-Grade Plutonium Production As of May, the US-Russian cooperative program for the elimination of Russian weapons-grade plutonium production in Russia was managed by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Until 2001, the United States allocated funds for the cooperative program under the Reactor Core Conversion budget item of the Department of Defense (DOD) Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program. Until 2000, modification of the cores of the three plutonium-production reactors in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk for civilian use was the focus of the program. The DOD served as the executive agent relying on the DOE for technical advice and contracting support. In 2001, construction of fossil-fueled power plants to replace the reactors as heat and power sources was introduced as an alternative to reactor core conversion, and the budget item was renamed Elimination of Weapons-Grade Plutonium Production. In December 2001, management and funding for the program were transferred from DOD to DOE, in part due to Congressional restrictions on the use of CTR funds for fossil-fuelled power plants.[1,3]. The following tables provide historical data on US funding for the elimination of Russian weapons-grade plutonium production. For the current level of US funding and additional information, please, refer to the updates provided in the "Controlling Nuclear Warheads and Materials," of NTI's Securing the Bomb or see Securing the Bomb 2007. Table I: Funding under DOD[2]
Table II: Funding under DOE[3]
Sources:
Page last updated
June 2008. Comments or questions? Contact Contact Anya Loukianova at MIIS CNS. 
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