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Newsletter:  Fall 2004/ Issue 6
Keeping the Lights On While Shutting Down the Last Plutonium Production Reactors in Russia

by Karin Durbin

PNNL is assisting a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) effort to shut down the three remaining plutonium production reactors in Russia. Located in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk, the reactors are currently the main sources of energy in those two cities, but they are also of international proliferation concern because of the dangerous fissile material they produce.

"Shutting down these three reactors will make a very significant contribution to global security," notes Jim Wiborg, a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who has been working on reactor safety and security in the former Soviet Union for many years. "Together they are capable of producing up to 1 ˝ tons of weapons-grade plutonium a year. In addition, reactor shutdown will eliminate the need to transport the highly enriched uranium fuel to the reactors, thus further increasing safety and security."

The Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production Program (EWGPP) was established with Russia to facilitate reactor shutdown and to assist in the construction and completion of fossil fuel plants to serve as alternate sources of energy in the two cities. EWGPP planning indicates that the reactors in Seversk can be closed by 2008 and the reactor in Zheleznogorsk can be closed by 2011. PNNL is working with DOE and Russia’s designated agency, the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (FAAE), to assess the impacts these closures will have on the local economies and to structure an international participation process that will accelerate implementation of the EWGPP and help mitigate these impacts.

Though closure of the reactors will bolster U.S. and Russian safety and nonproliferation efforts, it will also cause economic repercussions for the two cities and the surrounding regions. Reactor shutdown may result in layoff of more than 10,000 skilled weapons specialists. Neither city currently has the infrastructure to support such a major transition of its economy and workforce.

"Because the economies of Seversk and Zheleznogorsk are highly dependent upon the plutonium production reactors, the cities will experience job losses, revenue losses, infrastructure demands, and other socioeconomic effects as the reactors are closed. These impacts are exacerbated due to a lack of workforce transition planning and understanding of how to downsize a facility of this size. This is where the U.S. can assist, utilizing our experience in workforce transition and downsizing at our own plutonium production complexes," noted Jana Fankhauser, one of the PNNL program managers for EWGPP.

DOE has initiated the International Participation Initiative (IPI) for the EWGPP, which is focused on organizing an international donors conference to obtain additional funding for Russian-proposed projects that address workforce transition, commercial development, and infrastructure development in the cities. PNNL is assisting DOE in this effort, including working with the Russians to develop their proposals. Switzerland has offered to sponsor the international donors conference at the Spiez Laboratory near Interlaken. The conference is planned for the fall, pending Russian government approval.

The EWGPP program is the latest step in a series of U.S.-Russia actions to eliminate the production of weapons-grade plutonium in both the U.S. and Russia and ensure that plutonium produced prior to shutdown is securely stored and not used in nuclear weapons. The 1997 Plutonium Production Reactor Agreement (PPRA) between the U.S. and Russia aimed to end production of weapons-grade plutonium in the two countries by mandating that plutonium production reactors already shutdown would not be restarted and that operating reactors would cease to produce weapons-grade plutonium as soon as possible.

On March 12, 2003, the U.S. and the Russian Federation took a significant step forward by signing an amendment to the PPRA that provides for closing the three remaining Russian reactors upon their replacement by fossil plants. Target closure dates of 2008 and 2011 for Seversk and Zheleznogorsk, respectively, have subsequently been established, thereby clarifying what had been uncertain dates for closure of these last three plutonium production reactors.

By 1989, the U.S. had shut down all of its plutonium production reactors, which included nine light-water reactors at DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington State and heavy-water reactors at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. These former production sites have transitioned their production workforces and are now well into the tasks of decommissioning and environmental cleanup. The experience gained in this process at Hanford has enabled PNNL scientists to assist Russia in the shutdown and worker transition processes at its nuclear facilities.