Zheleznogorsk nuclear facility

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The Schelesnogorsk Nuclear Plant (Mining and Chemical Combine, Russian Горно-химический комбинат , abbreviation GChK , original name Kombinat 815) is a nuclear plant ten kilometers from the residential areas of the Russian closed city of Schelesnogorsk (Krasno-26). The plant is located about 50 kilometers northeast of Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk Region in Siberia and was founded in 1950. Almost 100,000 people live in Zheleznogorsk, 8,000 of whom work in the facility. The operator is the Federal Atomic Energy Agency of Russia .

Structure and location

Underground machine hall

The above-ground area of ​​the facility is 17 square kilometers and is located in a mountain range on the eastern bank of the Jennisei. The nuclear facility can be divided into the following essential functional areas:

  • Reactor plants
  • radiochemical plant
  • partially completed reprocessing plant RT2
  • technical areas

The entire reactor facilities, the radiochemical works, the laboratories and the storage facilities are located at a depth of 200 to 250 meters.

The entire complex is enclosed by three different security zones.

Early history of the facility

On February 26, 1950, it was decided to build the plant for the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons . Later, the construction of the underground nuclear facility began, which initially operated under the unsuspicious name of the Mining and Chemical Combine - Krasnoyarsk-26 . The project became an important part of Russia's nuclear weapons program. Within a few years the largest underground nuclear complex in the world with 3,500 rooms, halls and tubes was built. More than 40 tons of plutonium dioxide were reportedly produced for weapons. The fuel elements were reprocessed between 1958 and 1964 in the radiochemical works in Chelyabinsk-65 ( Mayak nuclear facility ) and / or Tomsk-7 ( Tomsk nuclear facility ). In 1964, the company's own underground radiochemical plant went into operation and began reprocessing spent fuel elements from the three plutonium reactors for military purposes.

Reactor plant

There are three graphite reactors for the production of plutonium in Zheleznogorsk: the AD, the ADE-1 and the ADE-2. These are constructed in a similar way to the now decommissioned plutonium production reactors in the USA on the Hanford site . The first reactor went into operation on August 25, 1958, and the second began production of plutonium-239 for nuclear weapons in 1961. Both reactors were cooled directly with water from the Yenisei . For their operation, cooling water was pumped from the Yenisei, which is 100 meters wide at this point, and fed back into the river at another point. The AD and ADE-1 reactors were shut down under the impact of the Chernobyl disaster (1986) in June and September 1992.

The newest reactor in Schelesnogorsk is a slightly water-cooled, graphite-moderated pressure tube reactor operated with natural uranium with a closed cooling circuit of the ADE type (ADE-2), which went into operation in 1964 and produced plutonium until June 1, 2009. According to a contract between the USA and Russia from 1994, the ADE-2 should be shut down by 2000. Since the ADE-2 also generated district heating and electrical energy for the local population, it could not be switched off until a backup source of energy was available for Zheleznogorsk and neighboring Sosnovoborsk . However, Russia pledged not to use the fissile material produced in weapons. After the reactor had to be shut down in 13 cases due to technical problems in 2007 alone, it was finally shut down on April 15, 2010.

The ADE-2 was the last in operation of the 13 Russian plutonium reactors and the only reactor of this type still in operation. A specialist from Rosatom said that each of the three reactors in Zheleznogorsk produced 1.5 tons of plutonium a year. Up to 1990 a total of 44.7 tons of plutonium had been produced.

Radiochemical works

The most important process in the radiochemical plant, reprocessing , comprises the dissolution of uranium metal in nitric acid, the separation of uranium and plutonium, and the decontamination of radioactive fission products. Plutonium dioxide, the end product of the process, was made into components for nuclear weapons in Mayak and / or Tomsk . There are stores for plutonium dioxide within the radiochemical plants. The high, medium and low level radioactive waste was stored in liquid form in boreholes in deep geological formations ( repository ). The deposit in question has been used for low-level radioactive waste since 1962 and for high- and medium-level radioactive waste since 1967.

In 1972, the Soviet Union began building a complex for the storage and reprocessing of fuel assemblies from civil light water power reactors . The construction of the fuel storage facilities, located between the old underground complex and the waste storage facilities, was completed in 1976.

Reprocessing plant RT-2

The plans for the construction of the plant RT-2, which is also a reprocessing plant for spent fuel and for the production of MOX - fuel should serve, emerged in the late 1970s. It was designed for the reprocessing of spent fuel elements from VVER and RBMK as well as from foreign light water reactors . The planned capacity is 1,500 tons of fuel per year. In addition, ten tons of plutonium could be extracted per year.

The first part of the facility, which was completed in 1985, deals with the disposal and storage of spent fuel elements. Construction of the reprocessing plant itself began in 1984, but was stopped in 1989 due to a lack of funding and public opposition. On January 1, 1996, it was declared that the RT-2 facility was 30% complete. It is also reported that spent fuel was stored in the reactor buildings in Zhelesnogorsk and in an interim storage facility next to the RT-2 construction site. The storage capacity in 2001 was around 6,000 tons. Currently, spent fuel elements are stored "wet" in a 10 meter deep basin for at least 30 years. In November 2000, a representative from Minatom announced that the RT-2 facility would be completed by 2015 and that additional “dry” storage facilities would be built.

Restructuring prospects

On March 12, 2003, the representatives of Russia and the United States signed an agreement in Vienna to reduce the threat from weapons of mass destruction by ending the production of plutonium in American and Russian reactors. As part of the agreement, the US Department of Energy , together with its partners in Russia, created a replacement for the reactors in Zheleznogorsk and Seversk with fossil -fired power plants for heat and electricity generation. The cost was approximately $ 350 million and the time to complete the project was approximately eight years. The last operated reactor, ADE 2, was shut down during this period (see above) From the 2010/2011 heating season onwards, the heat was supplied by a newly built fossil-fuel thermal power station.

For the first time, according to Rosatom , no letter of protest was filed against the planned construction of a nuclear power plant, but a complaint was filed against the reactor being decommissioned and no new one being built. A protest against the shutdown read: "We want clean air and white snow." The location for the thermal power plant was chosen extremely unfavorably, as the wind mostly blows from the power plant into the city. The plaintiffs demanded either the continued operation of the old or the construction of a new nuclear reactor. The closure could not be prevented, however, as continued nuclear operation was not compatible with the Russian-American treaty.

According to official information, 1,000 t of spent fuel elements from nuclear power plants of the VVER -1000 type with a radiation activity of 18.5 Exabecquerel (EBq) (500 million Curie ) are temporarily stored in Schelesnogorsk . In 1993, the Nuclear Surveillance Authority put the amount of nuclear waste deposited on the site at four million cubic meters, with a radiation activity of 25.8 EBq (700 million Curie). Russia's atomic ministry is planning to build a new, dry storage facility with a capacity of 33,000 tons for domestic and foreign nuclear waste. This is expected to add 740 EBq (20 billion Curie) of radioactive contamination.

The mining and chemical combine participates in the MPC&A program of the US Department of Energy to increase security through physical protection and improve control and computing technology. As part of the Nuclear Cities Initiative, the facility was first visited by US citizens in June 1996.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c DIW Berlin: Nuclear Environmental Hazard in Russia
  2. ↑ a b c d Virtual Globetrotting: Krasnoyarsk-26 / Zheleznogorsk - Mining and Chemical Combine (English)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Krasnoyarsk-26 / Zheleznogorsk Mining and Chemical Combine (MCA) (English)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Russia's last plutonium reactor will be shut down (English)
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Russia: Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk-26) ( Memento from October 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  6. ↑ a b Friday 42 - The river flows and shines
  7. ↑ NTI - Russia - AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION CONCERNING THE SHUTDOWN OF PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION REACTORS AND THE CESSATION OF USE OF NEWLY PRODUCED PLUTONIUM FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS ( Memento from July 4, 2002 on the Internet Archive ) (English)
  8. ↑ a b Russian PM Kasyanov OKs Plutonium Reactors Shut Down By 2006 ( Memento from February 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  9. ↑ ADE-5 reactor stopped ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  10. ↑ Enhancing Russian ADE Reactor Safety ( Memento from May 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  11. ↑ Russia: reactor shut down ( Memento from February 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ^ Russia: Reactor shut down - Chronicle - News - vienna.at
  13. ↑ a b Russia-USA: Disarming the betting continues - "Kommersant" . RIA Novosti . April 15, 2010. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
  14. ↑ One plutonium production reactor in Seversk to be shut down (English)
  15. ^ RIA Novosti: The world's last reactor for weapons-grade plutonium shut down (April 15, 2010). Retrieved April 15, 2010.
  16. ↑ National Nuclear Security Administration - Zheleznogorsk Plutonium Production Elimination Project (ZPPEP) (English)
  17. ↑ a b Nuclear power in Russia? Yes, thank you! . RIA Novosti - Analysis and Commentary. May 15, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2011.

Coordinates: 56 ° 21 '16.2 "  N , 93 ° 38' 37.9"  E