MOSCOW: Russia's state nuclear energy corporation was expected to switch off a nuclear reactor Sunday in a closed city in Siberia. The reactor has been producing weapons-grade plutonium for four decades, a senior U.S. nonproliferation official said Saturday. The reactor, ADE-4, is one of two in the city of Seversk that have been extraneous remnants of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program since the Cold War. For 15 years, they produced plutonium that the Kremlin neither needed nor wanted. Opened in secret in the 1960s to feed the arms race, the reactors have continued to operate because of their peculiar construction as defense-industry suppliers. The Defense Ministry stopped purchasing plutonium in 1993, rendering the reactors obsolete for their primary purpose. But the reactors could not be closed, and plutonium was still produced, because the reactors were also a primary source of heat and power to the bitterly cold regions along the Tomsk River, where no equivalent utility sources had been built.
MOSCOW: Russia's state nuclear energy corporation was expected to switch off a nuclear reactor Sunday in a closed city in Siberia.
The reactor has been producing weapons-grade plutonium for four decades, a senior U.S. nonproliferation official said Saturday.
The reactor, ADE-4, is one of two in the city of Seversk that have been extraneous remnants of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program since the Cold War. For 15 years, they produced plutonium that the Kremlin neither needed nor wanted.
Opened in secret in the 1960s to feed the arms race, the reactors have continued to operate because of their peculiar construction as defense-industry suppliers.
The Defense Ministry stopped purchasing plutonium in 1993, rendering the reactors obsolete for their primary purpose. But the reactors could not be closed, and plutonium was still produced, because the reactors were also a primary source of heat and power to the bitterly cold regions along the Tomsk River, where no equivalent utility sources had been built.
Russia to turn off plutonium-producing reactor - International Herald Tribune
Under a cooperative program between the Russians and the Americans, the United States has provided $285 million to underwrite the refurbishment of a coal plant to provide an alternate utility service to the region, Tobey said. The plant has been refurbished enough to switch off the first reactor this week. It is expected to be completed and in full service by June, allowing the second reactor, ADE-5, to be turned off as well.
Under a cooperative program between the Russians and the Americans, the United States has provided $285 million to underwrite the refurbishment of a coal plant to provide an alternate utility service to the region, Tobey said.
The plant has been refurbished enough to switch off the first reactor this week. It is expected to be completed and in full service by June, allowing the second reactor, ADE-5, to be turned off as well.
