Russia closes last plutonium-producing reactor
MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) - Russia has shut down its last plutonium-producing reactor ADE-2 at the Mining Chemical Plant in Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, the press service for OAO NIKIMT-Atomstroi told Interfax.
The ADE-2 is an industrial reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium, as well as thermal and electrical power. It was put into operation on Jay 25, 1964, and became the third nuclear power plant built in the USSR.
The Mining Chemical Plant in Zheleznogorsk had a total of three industrial reactors: AD (1958), ADE-1 (1961), and ADE-2 (1964). The first two reactors produced only plutonium and were shut down in 1992.
According to earlier reports, the U.S. provided $728 million for the construction of the Zheleznogorsk Thermal Power Plant and the reconstruction of the Seversk Thermal Power Plant in the Tomsk region, which will replace plutonium reactors, under the Russian-U.S. program to reduce the production of weapons-grade plutonium.