One plutonium producer closed, another in June

21 April 2008

[Itar Tass, 20 April]  A reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium in Seversk, Russia was shut down on 20 April, according to an Itar Tass report. Plant officials told the news agency the second similar reactor in the town would be shut in June. The shutdown comes after a fossil-fuelled boiler was installed to replace the heat production of the first unit, ADE-4, around January this year. That work had been carried out with the cooperation of the US National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA's) Office of Risk Reduction, which works to reduce weapons-grade nuclear materials on a global basis. Seversk was until 1992 one of the Soviet Union's 'secret' nuclear towns, known only by its postal code of Tomsk-7. It is home to several nuclear reactors and chemical plants for uranium separation, enrichment, and reprocessing. One other reactor taking a similar plutonium and heat production role remains at Zhelenogorsk. NNSA said this could be shut down permanently by the end of 2010.

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