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In January 2005 the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the US DOE to enable the UK to contribute to the US-led Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production Programme to ensure the irreversible shut down of the three remaining plutonium producing reactors in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk in Siberia. Under the MOU, the UK has provided £11 million to the closure of the final operating plutonium producing reactor in the closed nuclear city of Zheleznogorsk. Other international donors include Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Finland and the Republic of Korea. The two reactors at Seversk shut down in June 2008.
The Russian Government agreed to permanently shut down these reactors but only when replacement heat and power supply was made available. Therefore, an internationally funded coal-fired power plant with combined heat and power technology is being constructed. The UK contribution is supporting part of the cost of the low pressure boilers, low pressure precipitators, coal handling equipment, and fly ash pond, together with other key elements of the plant’s construction. Construction is near completion with the expectation that the district heating element will be completed in 2009 and the electricity supply the year after. The Zheleznogorsk plutonium producing reactor will be shut down thereafter.
Further information on the Plutonium Reactor Closure Programme may be found in the Global Partnership Annual Report - downloadable PDF document - located in the Related Links section on the right hand side of this page.
