Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Nuclear Weapons Facilities

Arzamas-16 produced the first Soviet atomic and thermonuclear bombs, using plutonium made at Chelyabinsk-40 near Kyshtym. A second parallel network of centers, providing a complete research and production cycle, located primarily in Siberia. These heavily protected facilities were located underground or in mountain ranges, as insurance against strikes aimed at the atomic centers in the Urals and the European part of the USSR. The main facilities in this parallel system were at Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26. Later a new facility was constructed at Chelyabinsk-70.

Sources

• Plutonium in Russia: Ecology, Economics, Policy. An Independent Analysis [Plutoniy V Rossii: Ekologiya, Ekonomika, Politika. Nezavisimyy Analiz ] by V. G. Vorobyov, A. M. Dmitriyev, A. S. Dyakov, Yu. I. Yershov, D. P. Osanov and L. V. Popova, Moscow, Center for Ecological Policy of Russia, Center for Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy, Socio-Ecological Union, 1994
• Nuclear Fuel Cycle in the Former USSR and in Russia: Structure, Possibilities, Prospects by Oleg Bukharin [Association for the Support of Nonproliferation], Moscow] 1993
• The Way It Was - A Bomb Labeled LON: Unknown Pages in the History of Soviet Atomic Weapons by Zhores Medvedev - Moscow RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA 30 Sep 94 p 5, 1 Oct 94 p 3] - Article Alleges Convict Labor Used in Nuclear Arms Development
• Ya Yastreb (I Am a "Hawk") Memoirs of Atomic Energy Minister Mikhaylov - Kron-Press, Moscow, 1993

• Declassified Spy Photos Studied By John Diamond Associated Press Tuesday, February 16, 1999 -- Joshua Handler of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School said the photographs show that Russia may have enough secure storage space to enable thousands more nuclear warheads to be removed from missiles under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
• Declassified spy satellite photos help arms reduction effort By John Diamond Associated Press Tuesday, February 16, 1999 -- U.S. spy satellite photographs of the Soviet Union taken during the Cold War are emerging from their shell of secrecy.
• Production of Weapon-Grade Plutonium To Cease by 2000 , Veronika Romanenkova, ITAR-TASS, 11/27/1995 -- The Russian Minister of Atomic Energy, Viktor Mikhaylov, said on Monday that Russia will halt production of weapon-grade plutonium before the end of the century.
• Radiation Conditions in Russia, RADIATSIONNAYA OBSTANOVKA ROSSII, 3/14/1995 -- Attachment to the map ``Radiation Conditions in Russia'', Scale 1:8,000,000, ``List of Facilities Marked on the Map Presenting a Radiation Danger''.
• The `Master' of the Secret Cities; Chief of the Minatom of Russia Main Scientific-Technological Administration on the Fate of Plutonium, Weapons Uranium, and on the Future of Closed Nuclear Centers, Vladimir Gubarev, DELOVOY MIR, 2/18/1995 -- Interview with Yevgeniy Mikerin, chief of the Minatom Main Scientific-Technological Administration

• "Radleg" INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER Project # 245 review of the nuclear complex of ex-USSR
• Ex-USSR Nuclear Technologies and the World By Peter L. Angelo
• Russian Nuclear Weapons Research, Test, and Production Facilities
• A first look at the Soviet bomb complex. By Thomas B. Cochran and Robert S. Norris Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May 1991 Vol. 47, No. 4
• The Nuclear Weapons Complexes: Meeting the Conversion Challenge A Proposal for Expanded Action Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council (RANSAC) September 1997
• Russian/American Fuel Cell Consortium [RAFCO]
• THE WORLD CULTURES REPORT: ECOCIDE IN THE USSR
• Institute of Physics & Power Engineering - Obninsk
• THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY IN KAZAKHSTAN AND KYRGYZSTAN by Vitalii Ponomarev Central Asia MonitorIssues No. 2 & 3 1993