Soviets to Shut Down 5 Reactors Used for A-Arms
The Soviet government has decided to shut down all five nuclear reactors producing plutonium for nuclear weapons at this top-secret military center in the Ural Mountains, idling two more reactors than originally announced by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev three months ago in London.
The decision was revealed here by Boris V. Brokhovich, the center’s director, during an unprecedented two-day visit by a group of U.S. congressmen and independent scientists to this vast city with no official name.
In the latest example of the Soviet defense establishment’s increasing use of openness, Brokhovich guided the group on a lengthy tour of his nation’s first military reactor and allowed his aides to release detailed new information about Soviet weapons production.
He said in an interview Saturday that two of the site’s reactors are shut now, a third will be closed next month and the remaining two will cease operating in 1991.
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