Table Of Content

MAKING THE RUSSIAN BOMB FROM STALIN TO YELTSIN by Thomas B. Cochran Robert S. Norris and Oleg A. Bukharin A book by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. Westview Press Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford Copyright Natural Resources Defense Council © 1995 Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................. List of Tables ................................................... Preface and Acknowledgements ..................................... CHAPTER ONE A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOVIET BOMB Russian and Soviet Nuclear Physics ............................... Towards the Atomic Bomb .......................................... Diverted by War ............................................. Full Speed Ahead ............................................ Establishment of the Test Site and the First Test ................ The Role of Espionage ............................................ Thermonuclear Weapons Developments ............................... Was Joe-4 a Hydrogen Bomb? .................................. Testing the Third Idea ...................................... Stalin's Death and the Reorganization of the Bomb Program ........ CHAPTER TWO AN OVERVIEW OF THE STOCKPILE AND COMPLEX The Nuclear Weapons Stockpile .................................... Ministry of Atomic Energy ........................................ The Nuclear Weapons Complex ...................................... Nuclear Weapon Design Laboratories ............................... Arzamas-16 .................................................. Chelyabinsk-70 .............................................. Nuclear Weapon Test Sites ........................................ Semipalatinsk-21 ............................................ Novaya Zemlya ............................................... Nuclear Warhead Production Facilities ............................ Fissile Material Production and Disposition ...................... Waste Management Activities ................................. CHAPTER THREE CHELYABINSK-65/MAYAK CHEMICAL COMBINE Introduction ..................................................... Graphite Reactors ................................................ A-Reactor ................................................... IR Reactor .................................................. AV-1 Reactor ................................................ AV-2 Reactor ................................................ AV-3 Reactor ................................................ Light and Heavy Water Reactors ................................... Lyudmila .................................................... Ruslan ...................................................... Chemical Separation Facilities ................................... B Plant (Plant 25) .......................................... BB Plant, or ``Double B'' Plant ............................. RT-1 Radiochemical Plant .................................... Radioisotope Plant .......................................... Plutonium Processing, Finishing and Component Manufacture ........ MOX Fuel Fabrication Facilities .................................. Pilot Bay ................................................... Zemchug ..................................................... Granat ...................................................... Paket ....................................................... Complex 300 MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant ...................... Central Research Laboratory ...................................... Instrument Engineering Plant ..................................... Repair and Machine Shop .......................................... Experimental Scientific Research Center .......................... South Urals Project .............................................. Long-Term Storage Facility for Fissile Material from Weapons ..... Radiation Exposure to Workers .................................... Accidents ........................................................ Waste Management Activities ...................................... Discharge of Waste into the Techa River ..................... Lake Karachay (Reservoir 9) ................................. Lake Staroe Boloto (Old Swamp, Reservoir 17)................ Waste Explosion in 1957 ..................................... High-Level Waste Tanks ...................................... Waste Vitrification ......................................... Solid Waste Burial .......................................... Contamination Today ......................................... CHAPTER FOUR TOMSK-7 AND KRASNOYARSK-26 Tomsk-7 (The Siberian Chemical Combine, Seversk) ................. Siberian Atomic Power Station ............................... Ivan-1 ................................................. Ivan-2 ................................................. ADE-3 .................................................. ADE-4 .................................................. ADE-5 .................................................. Chemical Separation Plant ................................... Plutonium Processing, Pit Manufacture, and Fissile Material Storage ............................................ Accidents ................................................... Geography and Hydrology ..................................... Waste Management Activities ................................. Uranium Enrichment Plant .................................... Military Conversion Activities .............................. Krasnoyarsk-26 (Mining and Chemical Combine, Zheleznogorsk) ...... Graphite Reactors ........................................... AD ..................................................... ADE-1 .................................................. ADE-2 .................................................. Chemical Separation Plant ................................... Accidents ................................................... RT-2 ........................................................ Spent Fuel Storage..................................... Reprocessing Plant..................................... Site 27 ................................................ Geography and Hydrology ..................................... Waste Management Activities ................................. Waste Tanks............................................ Deep Well Injection.................................... Reservoirs ............................................. Atmospheric Releases................................... Reactor Coolant discharges............................. Military Conversion Activities .............................. CHAPTER FIVE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE ACTIVITIES Front-End of the Fuel Cycle ...................................... Uranium Flows in the 1980s .................................. Uranium Flows in the Early 1990s ............................ Uranium Resources ........................................... Uranium Production .......................................... History and Technology................................. Kazakhstan ............................................. Uzbekistan ............................................. Ukraine ................................................ Russia ................................................. Uranium Conversion .......................................... Uranium Enrichment .......................................... History and Technology................................. Enrichment Plant Sites................................. Enrichment Production.................................. HEU and Natural Uranium Inventories.................... Fabrication of Uranium Fuel ................................. The Electrostal Machine-Building Plant................. The Plant of Chemical Concentrates..................... The Ulbinsky Metallurgical Plant....................... Future Prospects....................................... Nuclear Reactors, Other than Military Production Reactors ........ Civil Power Reactors ........................................ Naval Propulsion Reactors ................................... Research Reactors ........................................... Back-End of the Fuel Cycle ....................................... Fuel Cycle of Fast and VVER Reactors ........................ RBMK Fuel Cycle ............................................. Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication and Use ........................ CHAPTER SIX RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION FROM NUCLEAR-POWERED VESSELS Introduction ..................................................... Background ....................................................... Origins and Overview of Total Amounts of RW Dumped at Sea ........ RW Dumped in the Arctic .......................................... Liquid RW ................................................... Solid RW .................................................... Reactors with Spent Nuclear Fuel....................... Reactors without Spent Nuclear Fuel.................... RW Dumped in the Far Eastern Seas ................................ Liquid RW ................................................... Solid RW .................................................... The Extent of Radioactive Contamination .......................... The Hazards of Liquid RW .................................... The Hazards of Buried Solid RW .............................. Expeditions to the Solid RW Dump Sites................. The On-going Waste Disposal Problems of the Navy and the Murmansk Shipping Company..................... Decommissioned Nuclear-powered Submarines................... Spent Nuclear Fuel..................................... Reactor Compartments................................... Nuclear-powered Icebreakers of the Murmansk Shipping Company Spent Nuclear Fuel..................................... Proposed Land-based Solutions to Russia's Nuclear Waste Disposal Problems .......................................... Liquid Waste ................................................ Solid Waste ................................................. Spent Nuclear Fuel and Reactor Compartments................. Appendix A: Profiles of Key Figures in the Soviet/Russian Nuclear Program........................................ Appendix B: Flerov Letter to Stalin, April 1942 .................. Appendix C: Plutonium and Tritium Production Estimates ........... Appendix D: Nuclear-powered Submarines, Surface Ships, and Icebreakers............................................ Appendix E: The Komsomolets Nuclear-powered Submarine ............ Expeditions to the Submarine ..................................... What the Expeditions Found ....................................... Reactor ..................................................... Nuclear Torpedoes ........................................... What To Do About It .............................................. Appendix F: Accidents Involving Soviet/Russian Submarines, 1956-1994 .............................................. The Chazhma Bay Accident of 10 August 1985 ....................... List of Figures Figure 2.1 Principal Nuclear Sites ............................... Figure 2.2 Arzamas-16 at Sarova .................................. Figure 2.3 Chelyabinsk-70 near Kyshtym ........................... Figure 3.1 Chelyabinsk-65 Nuclear Complex ........................ Figure 3.2 Reservoirs and Lakes at Chelyabinsk-65 ................ Figure 4.1 Krasnoyarsk-26 Nuclear Complex ........................ Figure 4.2 Tomsk-7 Nuclear Complex ............................... Figure 5.1 Principal Uranium Flows in the 1980s .................. Figure 5.2 Principal Uranium Flows at Present .................... Figure 6.1 Northern Fleet Sites .................................. Figure 6.2 Liquid Radioactive Waste Dump Sites in the Barents Sea and Kara Sea ............................................ Figure 6.3 Dump sites Near Novaya Zemlya ......................... Figure 6.4 Pacific Fleet Sites ................................... Figure 6.5 Dump Sites in the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, and North Pacific Ocean ..................................... Figure C.1 Weapon-Grade Plutonium Inventory ...................... List of Tables Table 2.1 Organizational Charts of the Ministry of Atomic Energy ............................................... Table 2.2 Principal Nuclear Weapon Research, Test, and Production Facilities ....................................... Table 2.3 Design Laboratory Leaders 1946-1994 ................... Table 3.1 Facilities at Chelyabinsk-65 (Mayak Chemical Combine) Table 3.2 Occupational Radiation Exposures at Chelyabinsk-65) ... Table 3.3 Estimated Plutonium Production, High-Level Radioactive Waste Generation, and Atmospheric Radioactive Releases by the Chemical Separation Plants at Chelyabinsk-65, Tomsk-7, and Krasnoyarsk-26 in Russia (1992) ............................. Table 3.4 Non-radioactive Chemical Waste Constituents from Chemical Separations ........................................ Table 3.5 Population Centers Along the Techa River .............. Table 3.6 Organ Dose Estimates (External and Internal) for Inhabitants in Some Villages Along the Techa River ............... Table 3.7 Radioactive Contamination in the Chelyabinsk-65 Reservoirs .................................................. Table 3.8 The Average Annual Sr-90 and Cs-137 Concentration in the Techna River at the Myslyumovo Settlement............ Table 3.9 Dose Rates Along the Techa River Measured in July 1990 Table 3.10 Radionuclide Content of Lake Karachay and a Water Sampling Well 130 Meters to the South ....................... Table 3.11 Characteristics of the Radioactivity Released in the 1957 Accident ........................................... Table 3.12 Land Contaminated by the 1957 Accident at Chelyabinsk-65 ........................................... Table 3.13 Solid Waste Burial Sites at Chelyabinsk-65 ............ Table 4.1 General Characteristics of Dual-Purpose Production Reactors at Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26 ........................... Table 5.1 Uranium Mining Areas .................................. Table 5.2 Principal Uranium Production Centers .................. Table 5.3 Estimated Natural Uranium and SWU Requirements for Soviet-built Power Reactors ............................. Table 5.4 Natural Uranium and SWU Requirements for Countries Operating Soviet-designed Reactors................ Table 5.5 Fuel Fabrication Complex .............................. Table 5.6 Soviet-Designed Power Reactors Operation and Under Construction .......................................... Table 5.7 Research Reactors, Critical and Subcritical Assemblies .................................................. Table 5.8 Research and Commercial Reactor Tests of Pu-Containing Fuel .......................................... Table 5.9 Pilot and Semi-Commercial U-Pu Fuel Production Bays ... Table 5.10 Principal Organizations Involved in Research on Utilization of Plutonium ................................. Table 5.11 Versions of Pu Utilization in Nuclear Fuel Cycle ...... Appendix C Table C.1 Estimated Plutonium-Equivalent Production by the Five Graphite Reactors at Chelyabinsk-65 .............................. Table C.2 Estimated Plutonium-Equivalent Production by the Five Graphite Reactors at Tomsk-7 ..................................... Table C.3 Estimated Plutonium-Equivalent Production by the Three Graphite Reactors at Krasnoyarsk-26................... Table C.4 Estimated Plutonium- and Tritium-Equivalent Production by the Light and Heavy Water Reactors at Chelyabinsk-65 ........................................... About the Authors Thomas B. Cochran Dr. Thomas B. Cochran is Senior Staff Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Director of NRDC's Nuclear Program. He initiated NRDC's Nuclear Weapons Databook Project. He also initiated a series of joint nuclear weapons verification projects with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. These include the Nuclear Test Ban Verification Project, which demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing seismic monitoring to verify a low- threshold test ban, and the Black Sea Experiment, which examined the utility of passive radiation detectors for verifying limits on sea-launched cruise missiles. He has served as a consultant to numerous government and non-government agencies on energy, nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear reactor matters. He is currently a member of the Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Advisory Board and Environmental Management Advisory Board. Previously he served as a member of DOE's Energy Research Advisory Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on the Clean Up of Three Mile Island and the TMI Public Health Advisory Board. Dr. Cochran is the author of The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor: An Environmental and Economic Critique (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1974); and co-editor/author of the Nuclear Weapons Databook, Volume I: U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Press, 1984); Volume II: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production (1987); Volume III: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles (1987); and Volume IV: Soviet Nuclear Weapons (1989). In addition, he has published numerous articles and working papers, including those in SIPRI Yearbook chapters, Arms Control Today, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He has co-authored (with Dr. Norris) the article on ``Nuclear Weapons'' in the 1990 printing of The New Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition). Dr. Cochran received his Ph.D. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 1967. He was assistant Professor of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, from 1969 to 1971, and from 1971 to 1973, he was a Senior Research Associate at Resources for the Future. Dr. Cochran has been with NRDC since 1973. He is the recipient of the American Physical Society's Szilard Award and the Federation of American Scientists' Public Service Award, both in 1987. As a consequence of his work, NRDC received the 1989 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Robert S. Norris