Chelyabinsk-65
(Formerly known at Chelyabinsk-40, renamed Ozersk) includes Mayak Chemical
Combine. 
Plutonium and tritium production reactors; reprocessing of spent
fuel from ship propulsion and VVER-440 reactors; production of mixed-oxide (MOX)
fuel pellets, plutonium and HEU warhead components, and miniature spacebased
nuclear power sources.
At least 25-30 MT of reactor-grade plutonium.
Yes.
Unsafeguarded.
All five plutonium
production reactors at Chelyabinsk have been permanently closed, but plutonium
separation (reprocessing) from civilian VVER-440 reactor fuel and from naval
reactors (Chelyabinsk-65 is the only facility to reprocess this) continues at the
RT-1 Radiochemical Combine facility at Mayak, producing 0.6 tons per year. Two
tritium production reactors are also operating.
A central storage
facility to provide safe and secure storage of nuclear materials from
disassembled Russian nuclear weapons is now under construction at Mayak
(Chelyabinsk-65). Design, construction, and specialized equipment for the
storage facility are being funded, in part, by the United States. Under DOD's Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Commission (GCC), $15 million
for facility design and $75 for construction and specialized facility equipment
has been committed to the project. The United States committed an additional $75 million for
actual construction costs in 1996-1997. Concept design for the facility has been
completed, and construction is currently underway. Most of Russia's stockpile
of fissile material from disassembled nuclear weapons will be moved to the
facility, and some reports suggest that the first half of the storage facility,
capable of accommodating some 50,000 containers of plutonium and HEU, will be
completed by mid-1998.
Russian and American scientists took part in
reciprocal DOE Material Protection Control and Accountability visits between the
Mayak facility and the plutonium finishing plant in Hanford, WA, in 1994.
Physical protection equipment, including portal monitors, motion detectors,
seals, and cameras for installation at Mayak were shipped to Moscow in January
1995. These systems were demonstrated in August 1995 and Russia, and the United
States agreed to establish additional MPC&A measures, which are scheduled to be
installed by the end of 1996.
A paramilitary unit is reportedly being
established at Chelyabinsk-65 to combat potential nuclear smuggling.
Historical Background:
"Chelyabinsk 40 was the Soviet Union's first plutonium
production complex. It was at this site that Kurchatov, working under Beria,
built the Soviet Union's first plutonium production reactors, chemical separation
plant and plutonium and HEU metallurgy plant. Chelyabinsk-40 is the Soviet
equivalent of the U.S. Hanford Engineering Works and was fashioned after Hanford.
"
--Excerpted from Making the Russian Bomb-from Stalin to Yeltsin by
Thomas B. Cochran, Robert S. Norris, and Oleg A. Bukharin, Westview Press, San
Francisco.
