Nuclear Site Called a Terror Risk

Aug. 25, 2003
By Yevgenia Borisova
Staff Writer

The U.S.-backed Mayak storage facility for plutonium and weapons-grade uranium, whose construction is to be finished this year, is vulnerable to terrorists and a successful attack could cause "a historically unprecedented catastrophe," according to a complaint filed with the Prosecutor General's Office.

"Plans by international terrorists have revealed a conspiracy to exterminate strategic storages of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium in Russia," said the complaint, filed by Novosibirsk scientist and inventor Lev Maximov last week and accepted by Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov.

It is unclear whether prosecutors will look into the complaint, one of some 2,000 that are filed every week. And the chief engineer of the Mayak project, Boris Gusakov, called the allegation "rubbish," saying the facility will be able to withstand any attack.

The storage facility, which has received more than $400 million in UN funds, is being built on the grounds of Mayak, an enterprise in the Urals region of Chelyabinsk that processes radioactive waste from nuclear submarines. Its main purpose is to house weapons-grade materials from nuclear missiles that currently are stored at various vulnerable sites throughout the country. It is going up at the request of Russian authorities within the framework of the U.S. Nunn-Lugar initiative to reduce weapons of mass destruction.

Maximov, who has worked in the nuclear sector for decades, estimates that more than 400 tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium -- much of Russia's entire nuclear reserves -- will end up being stored at the Mayak site.

"Only about 10 kilograms of plutonium is needed for a medium-sized nuclear bomb that can erase a whole city. Can you imagine the explosion that would take place if the facility is attacked? The Urals would cease to exist, and Russia might disintegrate like the Soviet Union disintegrated after Chernobyl," Maximov said in an interview.

According to the web site of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, co-headed by CNN founder Ted Turner and former Senator Sam Nunn of the Nunn-Lugar initiative, describes the storage facility as "an immense concrete fortress designed to withstand even artillery fire and armor-piercing bombs dropped from aircraft." It says material stored there will be "some of the most secure in all of Russia."

Maximov questioned this in his complaint to the Prosecutor General's Office.

Citing technical documentation for the site, he said in the interview that the main danger at the facility is a plan to store fissile materials 17 meters above the ground in a warehouse that can be clearly seen from the air. The materials, he said, will be kept in U.S.-built containers that Russians will not be allowed to open for inspection. That means explosives with timers could be placed inside the containers and no one would be the wiser, he said.

The documentation says the area will be protected from an aircraft weighing up to 20 tons and can withstand the explosion of a bomb lying on its roof.

Maximov said he obtained the documentation "from worried special services officers" in 2000. The officers, he said, got the documentation in Tomsk, where initial plans called for the facility to be built. The documentation is dated 1992.

The Prosecutor General's Office refused to comment about the complaint.

A U.S. Embassy threat-reduction specialist said the new facility meets international standards.

"Mayak is a Russian-designed facility that has been vetted and approved by Minatom [the Nuclear Power Ministry]," the specialist, who asked not to be identified, said in a written response to questions. "The containers are loaded by the Russians and undergo stringent security inspections by the Russians to ensure they are safe prior to being loaded into the facility."

Gusakov, the project's chief engineer, said the technical documentation was updated in 1995 and Maximov's information is outdated.

He said nuclear materials will be stored more than 17 meters above the ground, but the facility will have three protective shields able to withstand any kind of attack. Surrounding the materials will be 2.5 meters of reinforced concrete followed by 3.5 meters of soil and another 2.5 meters of reinforced concrete.

"All these allegations about the facility are dilettante. I would have advised these people to talk with us first," Gusakov said in an interview.

Gusakov also denied that Russians would not be allowed to open the American containers. He said each container would be checked upon arrival to make sure its contents were in order.

Maximov said he also is worried that the project has never been approved by Russia's nuclear safety watchdog, Gosatomnadzor -- only by the Defense Ministry's nuclear safety department.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, a former Gosatomnadzor official who has seen Maximov's technical documentation, said the lack of Gosatomnadzor approval is the project's biggest problem.

The deputy head of the State Duma's defense committee, Vladimir Volkov, expressed concern about the U.S. participation in the project, saying Russia and the United States might not always be on friendly terms.

"The biggest international terrorist is America, and this facility is a monument to our stupidity. It should store no fissile materials whatsoever," he said in a telephone interview.

He said he hopes the prosecutors "will conduct a proper investigation into the complaint," adding that the Duma will provide Maximov "all support it could."

The complaint, in its appendix, includes a statement that echoes Volkov's concern from the Patriotic-Military Union of Russia, head by former senior Defense Department official Colonel General Leonid Ivashov.

"Concentrating all reserves of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium in one place under the control of the Americans and in containers made in America creates good conditions for a terrorist operation worse than the Chernobyl tragedy," it says.

The Nuclear Energy Ministry refused to comment on the complaint. Ministry spokesman Vitaly Nasonov said it and Volkov's support were part of the campaign for parliamentary elections in December.

The full capacity of the storage facility will be 66 tons of plutonium and 536 tons of highly enriched uranium. Washington estimates that it might end up spending $1.3 billion on the project.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/08/25/014.html