Reactor Facilities
Mailing address:
31 Lenin Street
454065, Ozersk (CHelyabinsk-65, Russia
Phone: 7 (873) 140-4664
Fax: 7 (873) 140-4665
| Mayak General Summary | Mayak in depth |
| History |
The first reactor facility was put into operation on June 19, 1948. This day may be considered birthday of the MAYAK Production Association and the nuclear industry of the country, as a whole. During a short period of time, they succeeded in developing a very powerful nuclear production process.
In the 70’s, along with the basic defense production facilities, some new production lines were introduced or further developed, specifically: reprocessing of spent fuel from nuclear power plants, submarines and icebreakers, radioisotope production or separation and production of isotope sources on their basis. All those activities made it possible for MAYAK to become an economically stable enterprise and start exporting the products.
In the late 80’s, the political and economic changes in Russia resulted in introducing some new activities at MAYAK, mostly associated with defense production business.
| Major Activities of MAYAK |
Reactor Facilities
There are two operational reactors for defense and commercial needs at MAYAK. Five other uranium-graphite reactors were decommissioned several years ago.
The unique neutronics and operational specifications of the reactors make it possible to produce a wide range of isotopes, including 14C, highly radioactive 60Co (up to 300 Ci/g), 192Ir (up to 700 Ci/g) and others, thereby meeting all the production needs of the Radioisotope Plant, as well as rapidly growing needs for the national radioisotope market.
At one of the MAYAK reactor facilities, a new process of radiation doping of
silicon billets, up to dia.105 mm (4’’) x 450 mm, has been brought to an
industrial scale. As early as in 1993, this process was applied to the silicon
rods with the diameter of up to 129 mm (5’’).
Much attention is paid to the improvements of the equipment, as well as to decontamination, decommissioning and disposal needs. Many processes and equipment, being developed at the facility, are used for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel or producing radionuclides, e.g. 60Co. The unique irradiator was designed and is currently used for the production of the ion-selective film for diminutive power sources. The thermoelastic tubes production process has been worked out. Gamma-sterilization of surgical instruments and medical products has become a routine activity.
Spent Fuel Reprocessing and Regeneration Plant
The plant was originated from the first Russian radiochemical facility for weapons plutonium production that was put into operation in 1948. The operation of a new plant started in 1977, and, since that time, it has been involved in spent fuel reprocessing from PWR and FBR reactors of VVER-440, BN-350, BN-600 types, as well as from submarine, icebreaker and research reactors. The spent fuel for reprocessing was received from various domestic and foreign power plants, i.e. "Paksh" in Hungary, "Dukovany" and "Rzhehzh" in Czech Republic, "Bogunitsy" in Slovakia, "Loviisa" in Finland, "Greisfeld" in Germany and "Kozlodyi" in Bulgaria.
The plant has a spent fuel storage pool, three spent fuel dissolution process
lines, modified PUREX extraction process for separation of plutonium, neptunium
and technetium.
After three-year hold-up in the power plant pool, the spent fuel assemblies are transported to the reprocessing plant by special trains. The reprocessing provides:
Radioisotope Plant
The history of the Radioisotope Plant dates back to 1962. Currently, it is one of the major suppliers of radioisotope sources in Russia. Many well-known companies from UK, France, the USA, Germany are among its customers.
The plant products include:
All the products of the Radioisotope Plant meet the international quality assurance standards. Being one of the leading exporters in this field, the Radioisotope Plant supplies its products to many countries, and has received no claims from its customers so far.
All the products of the Plant are in the process of continuous improvement. The engineering staff is always ready to meet the customers’ requirements and introduce all the necessary improvements to the design.
All the products are delivered to the customers in special transportation casks that meet the IAEA Type A and B requirements identified in Regulations for Safe Transportation of Radioactive Materials (1990).
Central Research Laboratory
The specialists of the Central Research Laboratory deal with problems regarding
defense and commercial production, as well as safety assurance and environmental
monitoring issues.
The major focus is given on the following research trends:
Experimental Scientific Research Centre (ESRC) was founded in 1958 after the
1957 explosion to solve the problems connected with a big-scale radioactive
contamination of the vast territories. The focus was given on the studies of the
basic mechanisms of radionuclide behaviour and contaminant transport in
different environmental media, as well as on implementation of specific
activities for remediation of the contaminated lands and waters and studies of
the ionizing irradiation impact on the environment.
Currently, the Center is a highly-developed organization with the experimental basis of highly potential and advanced methods for analysis and evaluation of practically all radionuclides and their behavior in various objects and media. For the last few years, the Centre has established wide international relations in the sphere of applied radioecology. One of its accomplishments is that over 80% of the Eastern Urals lands have been decontaminated and returned to the agricultural sector of the economy. The specialists of the Center have been actively involved in the work on utilization of the contaminated soils after the Chernobyl accident.
Research activities of the first priority:
After the early years of its operation, MAYAK faced a great number of
environmental problems. Contaminated soils and water reservoirs, processing of
millions of curies of liquid waste and thousands of tons of solid waste were
among those of the major concern.
During the last few years, they have managed to develop, install and put into operation the first, and still the only one in Russia, vitrification facility for liquid waste immobilization. Its operation is very efficient. Karachai lake that contains 120 mln Ci of radioactive waste in it, has been practically vitrified. The Russian Goverment has adopted a comprehensive Remediation Program that has been currently carried out. Everything is being done at MAYAK to become a waste-free enterprise.
Defense Conversion Production
Drastic changes in the political and economic situation in Russia have caused intensive development of the defense conversion production at the former military site. There are several main areas of the defense conversion activities.
First of all, these activities are associated with the instrumentation and engineering plant. Its defense conversion products include but are not limited by telescopic antennas for radio sets, radio circuit boards, flow meters, level meters and thermometers of different types. The plant has already started the trial production of DC precision engines for audio- and video equipment and other state-of-the-art information processing equipment.
The Special Design Bureau has been organized at MAYAK to develop highly precise instruments for analysis of extremely pure materials.
A few process lines at one of the plants have been redesigned for the production of rare-earth high-coercive magnets. These magnets are for the customers all around the country, but they are also used at MAYAK for the AC engines manufacture. The magnets are ready for export as well.
Other activities include but are not limited to the following: