International Panel on Fissile Materials

Russia is a nuclear weapon state member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is estimated to have about 5,580 nuclear warheads, of which about 4,380 warheads are believed to be in active stockpile - 2,670 warheads assigned to strategic delivery vehicles and about 1,600 warheads associated with shorter-range delivery vehicles and other non-strategic systems. About 1,200 nuclear warheads are estimated to be in reserve or awaiting dismantlement.

As of the beginning of 2023, Russia's fissile material stock is estimated to include about 193 MT of separated plutonium and 680 MT of highly-enriched uranium. Some of this material is in weapons. Russia also declared 64.5 tonnes of separated plutonium as civilian (as of the end of 2022).

Russia is not producing fissile materials for weapons. The last plutonium production reactor was shut down in April 2010. Production of HEU for weapons was discontinued before 1989. Russia, however, may have continued to produce HEU for naval and research reactor fuel until mid-2000s. It restarted HEU production for research and breeder reactors in 2012.

Highly-enriched uranium

Enriched uranium was produced at four facilities - the Urals Electrochemical Combine in Novouralsk (Sverdlovsk-44), the Isotope Separation Plant at the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk (Tomsk-7), the Electrochemical Plant in Zelenogorsk (Krasnoyarsk-45), and Electrolyzing Chemical Combine in Angarsk. All four enrichment plants continue to operate today, producing LEU for power reactors. One centrifuge cascade in Zelenogorsk is producing HEU for research and breeder reactors.

As of the beginning of 2022, Russia had an estimated 680 tons of unirradiated HEU (90 percent HEU equivalent). No HEU has been declared or obligated as a naval fuel reserve or non-military material. However, about 9 tons of HEU (6 tons 90 percent HEU equivalent) is in various research facilities and therefore is not available for weapons.

In Russia, spent naval fuel, as well as spent research reactor fuel, is reprocessed.

Under an agreement with the United States, Russia eliminated 500 tonnes of its HEU. The material was blended down and resulting LEU was sold to the United States to produce fuel for power reactors. The program was completed in 2013. Another program, the Material Conversion and Consolidation project (MCC), has blended down 16.8 tonnes of HEU by the end of 2014, when the program ended.

Separated plutonium

Plutonium for weapons was produced at three sites - the Mayak Production Association in Ozersk (formerly Chelyabinsk-65), the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk (Tomsk-7), and the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk-26). The first plutonium production reactor, Reactor A at Mayak, began operation in June 1948. The last production reactor, ADE-2 in Zheleznogorsk, was shut down in April 2010.

Weapon-grade plutonium separated at dedicated reprocessing plants located at the same three sites. The weapon-plutonium reprocessing facility at Mayak was shut down in 1987, after which the fuel from the Mayak reactors was sent to Tomsk-7 for reprocessing. Reprocessing plants in Seversk and Zheleznogorsk were shut down in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

The total amount of separated plutonium in Russia today is estimated to be 193 tonnes. Of this material, 64.5 tonnes is plutonium separated from spent fuel of power reactors. Russia declares this material as civilian in its annual reports to the IAEA. While this material is not safeguarded and is not covered by an explicit obligation not to use it for military purposes, it is considered as not directly avaiable for weapons. Also in this category are the 25 tonnes of weapon-origin plutonium that were included in the U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). Although Russia suspended the implementation of PMDA in 2016, it pledged not to use the PMDA material for military purposes. Finally, about 15 tonnes of weapon-grade plutonium separated after September 1997 from irradiated fuel of three plutonium-production reactors that continued operating to supply district heat and electricity to the Siberian cities of Tomsk and Zheleznogorsk. This material is covered by U.S.-Russian agreement on production reactors and cannot be used for military purposes. It is stored at Zheleznogorsk and is subject to periodic monitoring by U.S. inspectors.

Civilian reprocessing program

Russia is operating the RT-1 reprocessing plant at the Mayak site in Ozersk. The plant can reprocess spent fuel of VVER-440 power reactors as well as HEU fuel of production reactors and fuel of naval and research reactors. Design capacity of the RT-1 plant is 400 tonnes of VVER-440 fuel. The plant began operations in 1976 and continues to work today, although at a fraction of its design capacity, reprocessing about 100-130 tons of spent fuel annually. In 2014-2015 the plant added the capability to reprocess VVER-1000 fuel, which would allow it to increase throughput to up to 500 tons of spent fuel/year.

In 2015, Russian began start-up operations of the Pilot Demonstration Center - a reprocessing plant at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk. The plant is expected to reach the capacity of 250 MTHM/year.

Plutonium separated from spent fuel of power reactors is stored at the RT-1 plant. This material is currently used to produce fuel for BN-800 fast neutron reactor.