The Ural Electrochemical Combine (russian: Уральский электрохимический комбинат) is a company located in
Novouralsk, Russia. It is a subsidiary of
TVEL (
Rosatom 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 due to its history of foreign partnerships. The facility was heavily involved in the construction of centrifuge plants in
Shaan-xi and
Lanzhou
Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. H ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in the 1990s to serve China's domestic fuel needs. The facility also enriched uranium for
Kazakhstan, 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
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, 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 for
Low-Enriched Uranium (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