KYSHTYMV ISITG IVESF IRSTLOOK AT SOVIET PLUTONIUMPRODUCT IONCOMPLEX

Last summer, for the first time ever, _’ the USSR opened part of its plutoni- z urn production factory at Kyshtym- its equivalent of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the United States-to a group of foreign visitors. While the visitors did not see the reactors that are still producing fissionable materi- als for Soviet nuclear weapons at Kyshtym (and elsewhere), they toured two production reactors recently shut down, and they learned a great deal about other operating facilities and their history, including the cata- strophic explosion of nuclear wastes that occurred in 1957. They also picked up more information about Soviet energy policies and returned with more definite impressions about where Gorbachev’s government . . . . . , 7 . . 1 would like to head in arms control. The visit to Kyshtym was part of a week-long visit that also included a stop at the Black Sea for an unusual experiment involving warhead detec- tion techniques (see the box on page 45) and an unprecedented (and un- scheduled) look at the laser test facili- SOVIET UNION ty at Sary Shagan (see the box on pages 34 and 35). The tour group, which included three members of Congress and reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post, was put together on the US side by Thomas Cochran, senior staff scien- tist for the Natural Resources De- Boris V. Brokhovich (left), director of the Kyshtym complex fense Council in Washington. Soviet (see map for location), and Evgeny I. Mikerin, manager arrangements were made, with Gor- of Soviet nuclear weapons production facilities, pose in front of a bachev’s blessings, by Evgeny P. Vel- statue of lgor Kurchatov. (Photo by Robert Carr.) ikhov, a vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the director the production of fissionable materi- mutual exchange of information. Re- of the Kurchatov Institute. als for weapons. member, however, the existing dis- The general message that Gorba- But what did the group itself see, parity: They can just go to DOE’S chev has been conveying by permit- learn and conclude? Congressman office of public information to find out ting this tour and similar visits by John Spratt of South Carolina sum- much of what they want to know!” other US groups to sensitive military marized his impressions for us as Spratt was asked last year by the installations in the USSR is that he is follows: “First, the two reactors that chairman of the House Armed Serv- willing to introduce glasnost into the were shut down should have been ices Committee, Les Aspin, to head up realm of national security, too, for the shut down. [The decision to shut the committee’s new Department of sake of improving mutual confidence them down] had nothing to do with Energy Defense Nuclear Facilities and prospects for arms control. The arms control. Second, there was more Panel. As the head of that panel, it is specific message of Kyshtym seems to that we didn’t see than we did see. Spratt’s job to keep an eye on the US be that he is interested in exploring Third, they seem willing to disclose government’s efforts to clear up the the possibility of a bilateral freeze on more-willing at least to agree to a mammoth, multibillion-dollar prob-

@ 1989 American lnswufe of physics PHYSICSTODAY NOVEMBER 1989 87 lems in the US -nuclear weapons and Jim Olin of Virginiai physicist-- Soviets more or less achieved strate- complex (see PH~kxcsTonAvi Septem- Frank von Hippel of. Princeton Uni- gic parity with the United States, ,, ber ‘1988,. page x47, and ‘November 6~ versity; NRDC? director John Adam 2:A,$t,hey:co)rtinued to rely&~ these early i: 1988, page 49). and’ NRDC senior attorney Jacob ~~+reactors: Anotchka was shut, down ,..+.,,Yould a bilateral agreement limit: Scherr. I., \ y&&i..*.., _c . +,,,**:+only in 1987, after 39 years of oper- ’ ing~‘plut&ium “production help the. -2..ai ”...y”’ ‘--‘.‘.”‘- ation;,+f,‘It’s as though the,‘museum- ‘~“? United States with the uroblems in its c :‘ The KYshWm visit o&&reactor at Oak Rid& ‘were’ still : j materials complex? Spratt expressed Shortly before the group left for the bperating,“‘Cochran commented. ,;,. some skepticism: sHe points out that USSR in June, Soviet authorities’$;:h;“‘-.The second reactor the visitors saw, the most-costly problems arise from confirmed that a large explosion took built&,the earlyX950s, was shut ;., past, damage to the environment at \ place in a nuclear waste repository at down this year. A third agedreactor the major facilities, which has to be 1 Kyshtym in 1957:’ For many years was shut down shortly after the, visit, ii cleaned up in any case; and while an Soviet authorities had denied or re- and the other two plutonium produc- agreement to limit or even stop pluto- fused to comment on the claim by tion reactors still operating at Kysh- nium production might be negotiable, dissident biologist Zhores Medvedev, tym are to be closed-during the next if and when a strategic arms agree- who lives in London, that such an few years. ’ ment is concluded, it is difficult to see event had happened. Medvedev hy- . Commenting on the early history of how a freeze could include tritium. ‘. pothesized the accident onthe basis of Kyshtym, Boris V. Brokhovich, the (Because of tritium’s short halflife, it a wide variety of evidence, detailed in director ‘of the complex, told the must be replenished to maintain e% his book Nuclear Disaster in the Urals American visitors: “You sat the Ros- ,..isting nuclear, stockpiles.) (Norton, 1979). enbergs in the electric chair for noth- Last July, the House passed an The 1957 accident was described to ing. We got nothing. from them. I amendment to the defense authoriza-.‘* the visitors as follows: In 1956 there stood beside [Igor] Kurchatov [the tion bill that contains “sense of Con- was a leak in coolant pipes at a waste leader of the Soviet atomic weapons gress” language asking the President repository. Calculations indicated, program]. I knew what he knew. If to begin negotiations on a cutoff of incorrectly, that the wastes were sta- we’d known more, we wouldn’t have fissile-material production and call- ble and not highly radioactive, and made so many mistakes.” ing on him to put together a joint the coolant was shut off. The wastes working group with the Soviets to then dried, leading to a buildup of Other findings explore technical aspects of a plutoni- highly explosive nitrate . salts and The group came away with somewhat um production ban. The amendment acetate. mixed impressions regarding the fu- originated in a stronger bill drafted Soviet scientists continued to deny, ture of the USSR’s advanced reactor on the Senate side, which was largely at the time of and after the Kyshtym program. A fact sheet prepared by. the work of Christopher Paine, an visit, that deaths resulted from the NRDC suggests the breeder program arms control aide to Senator Edward explosion, despite a massive release of is on hold pending resolution of a M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Paine radiation. Soviet officials have con- number of issues, including concern is relatively optimistic about the pros- ceded that a large number of people about the possibility of runaway reac- pects for a plutonium freeze. He were evacuated from the surrounding tors that could lead to Chernobyl-like thinks the intelligence community area, but their claims about the num- explosions (or worse). Spratt, on the would welcome an exchange of infor: ber evacuated have varied from as low other hand, came away convinced mation that rounded out its knowl- as 10 000 to as high as 300 000. (It is that the Soviets are proceeding with edge of the Soviet production corn-. not known what evacuees were told, plans to build three 800-MW breeders plex, and he says even some people in though we may learn more from an at Kyshtym-ground already is the national security establishment investigation into the disaster by a broken for one, he says-and that see a freeze as a complement to an newly established commission of the they still intend to build a 1600-MW arms reduction agreement-it would Supreme Soviet.) breeder as well. When Cochran re- “reduce the error bars” (by limiting The visitors to Kyshtym did not go marked on the high cost of breeder the plutonium available for clandes- near a lake where large quantities of electricity to Yevgeny I. Mikerin, tine weapons production). high-level waste from chemical sepa- chief of manufacturing for the State Generally, however, members of ration plants were simply dumped for Committee for Utilization of Atomic the Kyshtym tour group have been many years. The wastes contained an Energy, Mikerin replied: “Your hard pressed to find anybody in the estimated 120 million curies of stron- thoughts coincide with mine exactly. Bush Administration who is seriously tium-90 and cesium-137. Soviet scien- I think we should build just one interested in exploring a plutonium tists said that standing by the lake breeder, to study it.” freeze, and in Congress, there is some would result in an immediate per- In the local election for the newly reluctance to push the issue too person exposure of 500 millirems- created Congress of People’s Deputies hard-Aspin argues that to do so about 20 times the current permissi- last March, a candidate opposing con- would “crowd the negotiating table,” ble limit for civilians (non-radiation struction of breeders at Kyshtym (the and that concern is widely shared. workers) near nuclear plants in the head of a collective farm) defeated a The Administration’s position regard- United States. breeder advocate (the chief of con- ing a freeze, like its predecessor’s The two shut-down reactors that struction at the Kyshtym complex). position on a nuclear test ban, would the visitors saw-“Anotchka” or Lit- The US group learned that the seem to be that there is no point in tle Anna, which provided plutonium Soviet nuclear fuel cycles differ mark- even thinking about such measures as for the first Soviet bomb, and a follow- edly from practices in the United long as the United States remains up research reactor for testing mate- States. According to Paine, spent fuel committed to the development and rials-showed every sign of having from RBMK reactors-the Chernobyl construction of new nuclear weapons. been built simply and in great haste, type-is not reprocessed, and there The Kyshtym tour group included, at a time when Soviet scientists were may be no economic incentive to do so besides Spratt, Cochran and Paine, working furiously to match US nu- because initial enrichment is low and Congressmen Bob Carr of Michigan clear capabilities. Even after the burnup is high. Spent fuel from the

88 PHYSICSTODAY NOVEMBER 1989 440-MW VVER reactors--the non- retired and plutonium production is “graduate programs seem to have Chernobyl type that more closely reduced or even entirely eliminated. either one-fourth or else three-fourths resemble US light-water reactors--is Apparently there is serious talk about foreign students.” reprocessed, and the separated ura- building facilities to manufacture Why the disparity? “In general, nium is sweetened with highly en- milk processing equipment or VCRs. those physics programs that are most riched uranium from the weapons Sensitive to constituent concerns of attractive to US students tend to have stockpile to make 2-4% enriched fuel this kind, Congressman Olin com- fewer foreign students,” Ellis says. for RBMKs. The feedstock for Soviet mented to PHYSICS TODAY: “It will be For example, in the top ten physics enrichment plants contains reproc- hard for them to shut down the departments (as ranked in “An As- essed spent fuel from plutonium pro- [plutonium production] facilities just sessment of Research-Doctorate Pro- duction reactors, as well as virgin for that reason [the difficulty of con- grams in the United States: Math- uranium concentrate. verting them], if nothing else.” Nev- ematical and Physical Sciences,” a Soviet commercial uranium enrich- ertheless, Olin came away with the 1982 report by the National Academy ment now takes place entirely by impression that the Soviets are “pret- of Sciences), an average of 27% of the means of the centrifuge method, the ty serious” about the possibility of a graduate students are foreign--corn- visitors were told. The Soviets said limit or freeze on weapons material pared with a combined average of they have ten centrifuge plants, each production. “The main message [of 42% for all doctorate-granting insti- with a capacity of 1 million SWU the visit],” Olin said, “was that the tutions. At the University of Illinois (separative work units) per year. Plu- Soviet Union has far more reactor at Urbana-Champaign-with 315 tonium production takes place in capacity than needed, especially if we students, the country’s largest phys- reactors at three sites: Kyshtym, go ahead with a strategic arms reduc- ics graduate program--only 14% Tomsk and Dodomovo, near Kras- tion treaty.” were foreign in 1988-89. noyarsk. When Cochran asked how Congressman Carr shares Olin’s New highs in the number of physics much plutonium the Soviet Union has impression that Gorbachev’s govern- graduate degrees were reached in stockpiled, he was told, “A little more ment would like to negotiate a bilater- 1988 compared with the preceding ten than you.” al agreement on plutonium. His un- years. There,were 1733 physics mas- Somehow members of the group derstanding is that the Supreme Sovi- ter’s degrees granted last year, of came away with the impression that et plans to consider new legislation which 1035 went to students interest- Kyshtym may house a heavy-water this fall that would modify the ed in pursuing higher physics degrees tritium production reactor that they USSR’s atomic energy act to permit and 698 to those ending their studies were not told about. Apparently trit- further disclosure of information at the master’s level. Eight years ago, ium is produced in heavy-water reac- about plutonium. when the number of physics niaster’s tors at the other two facilities. Regarding the more urgent and degrees bottomed out,’ only 1370 de- much more difficult question of trit- grees were awarded. A 4.1% increase Civilian conversion? ium, Carr says one official told him was seen in physics d6ctorate reci- Kyshtym managers expressed con- during the visit-“half in jest”-that pients in 1988, with 1150 doctorates cern about what will become of the the USSR might be willing to sell the awarded, compared with 1105 the population of some 100 000 that the United States some! previous year. facility supports as old reactors are -WILLIAM SWEET Ellis attributes the rise in physics graduate degrees to the influx of foreign students enrolling in US grad- uate programs.’ Based on current USSTUDENTS CONT INUETO enrollment and graduation trends, the survey projects that the number CHOOSE PHYSICSMAJORS of physics doctorates granted will continue to rise into the early 199Os, While the overall college-age popu- lors are only leveling of&and not to as many as 1300 per year, and will lation in the US is shrinking, the slipping-is a good sign.” She points then either level off or begin to number of students choosing physics out that in addition to those students decline. majors has remained stable, accord- who major in physics, over 300 000 The number of women and minori- ing to the latest figures on graduation students take an introductory physics ties granted physics degrees in 1987- and enrollment in physics programs course while in college. “That’s a 88 remained about the same as the at US universities gathered by the very large number,” Ellis said. “And previous year. Women accounted for American Institute of Physics. it’s especially important now, when 15% of the bachelor’s degrees award- The survey of 800 physics and the need for scientifically literate ed.in 1988 and 9.5% of the doctorates. astronomy departments across the people is so great.” Blacks made up 3.5% of physics country found that 5152 physics bach- This year’s survey also turned up a bachelor’s recipients, Asians (includ- elor’s degrees were awarded during surprising finding on student enroll- ing Asian-Americans and Indians) the 1987-88 academic year, down ment at the graduate level: The distri- 4.4% and Hispanics 1%. slightly from the 5253 awarded the bution of foreign students among US In astronomy, only one in ten appli- previous year and about the same as physics programs is very uneven. cants to doctoral programs is accept- in 1984-85. The number of under- Since the early 198Os, the proportion ed, this year’s survey found, in con- graduates who declared physics ma- of foreign students in US graduate trast to physics programs, where jors in 1988 was roughly what it had physics programs has been high; for- there is a chronic shortage of quali- been the previous several years. eign citizens now account for about fied students. Graduate astronomy “This comes as a pleasant sur- two of every five graduate slots. But departments can draw from a large prise,” says Susanne D. Ellis, onemof few schools actually fall at the 40% pool of applicants when selecting the survey’s authors. “We know that mark, Ellis says. After looking at their doctoral students; the choice the college-age population is going individual schools’ enrolhnents ear- available to physics programs is more down, so the fact that physics bache- lier this year, she discovered that limited. Even so, the survey con-

PHYSICS TODAY ‘~ NOVEMBER 1989 89