The Ural Electrochemical Combine (russian: Уральский электрохимический комбинат) is a company located in
Novouralsk
Novouralsk (russian: Новоура́льск, lit. ''new town in the Urals'') is a closed town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, about north of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the obla ...
, Russia. It is a subsidiary of
TVEL :''TVEL ( rus, ТВЭЛ, r=tvel) is also a Russian abbreviation of the "heat-releasing element", fuel rod.''
The TVEL Fuel Company (TVEL) is a Russian nuclear fuel cycle company headquartered in Moscow. It has operated since 1996.
History and op ...
(
Rosatom
Rosatom, ( rus, Росатом, p=rɐsˈatəm}) also known as Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom or Rosatom State Corporation, is a Russian state corporation headquartered in Moscow that speciali ...
group). Beginning in 1949, the plant began the production of
Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU).
History
The Ural Electrochemical Combine was important to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
due to its history of foreign partnerships. The facility was heavily involved in the construction of centrifuge plants in
Shaan-xi and
Lanzhou,
China in the 1990s to serve China's domestic fuel needs. The facility also enriched uranium for
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, with the Soviet Union receiving a share of 50%, proportionate to the need to enrich to 6000 tU/yr.
The Soviet Union began replacing its gaseous diffusion equipment with centrifuge technology in the 1960s. By the end of the
Cold War, when all equipment had been replaced, the facility had the capacity to produce almost 12 million SWU per year.
The facility is now converted to civilian use and no longer produces highly enriched uranium. Today, the facility enriches
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
for
Low-Enriched Uranium
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (23 ...
(LEU) fuel, and develops technologies for industrial applications.
In the early 2000s it accounted for 49% of Russia's enrichment capacity.
References
External links
Official website
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Companies based in Sverdlovsk Oblast
Rosatom
Nuclear reprocessing sites
Manufacturing companies of the Soviet Union