Plutonium Mountain - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

the hundreds of sensors and other pieces of equipment that will eventually need to be replaced—
is questionable, especially given the fact that Kazakhstan’s nuclear regulators remain relatively
weak, and funding for the site is limited. But U.S. officials say that the cementing of the tunnels
provides enough of a barrier so that even a basic monitoring system should suffice.
The security at Degelen Mountain raises an uncomfortable reminder, however, of just how difficult
it will be to sustain an effective security operation at Semipalatinsk for the duration that
will be required. Plutonium’s half-life is 24,110 years. 91 The plutonium at Degelen Mountain will
potentially pose a danger for a time frame beyond human understanding. It is certainly true, as
the plaque at Degelen Mountain attests, that the world has become safer than it was before the
operation, but it also remains the case that the scars left by nuclear weapons testing during the
Cold War will last for eons. Asked at the picnic when it will be possible for security to be withdrawn
from Semipalatinsk, Sergei Lukashenko, the director of Kazakhstan’s Institute of Radiation
Safety and Ecology, ignored his Russian interpreter and spoke in stern, broken English.
“Never we leave this area. Never.”
And there may yet be further surprises at the test site. Only a few months ago, Ristvet said a Kazakh
survey team discovered five more areas near Degelen Mountain where experiments left behind
plutonium residue in high enough concentrations to pose a proliferation risk. “In some cases
[the plutonium] is such that a guy with a pickup truck and a shovel could accumulate enough [for
a bomb], removing only a few tons of soil,” Ristvet said. Hecker said that while there are some
areas that need attention, existing monitoring of the site is sufficient to limit concerns about potential
theft.
At the urging of Ristvet, the United States is currently negotiating a project by which it will haul
tons of soil into an empty tunnel in Degelen Mountain and fill the tunnel with the same cement
and iron mixture used in the other Kolba projects. However, DTRA officials say that cuts to
CTR funding have delayed the project. Asked how much plutonium remains at Semipalatinsk,
even 17 years after U.S. experts first warned of the urgent need to secure the site, Ristvet says,
“Enough.”
Conclusions
The Semipalatinsk operation secured substantial amounts of plutonium and reduced the threat
that it could fall into the hands of scavengers, terrorists, or a state with malevolent intentions. But
it was a very close call. Had the governments of the United States, Russia, and Kazakhstan not
been prodded, the large and expensive clean-up might never have been launched, or the bad actors
might have arrived on the scene before the materials could be secured.
The Degelen Mountain operation highlighted the valuable and effective role of unofficial collaboration
and contact among scientists and others who are devoted to achieving results without
cumbersome negotiations. Yet securing the plutonium in Kazakhstan proved to be a laborious
and long undertaking which required 17 years, including a decade after the 9/11 attacks, which
irradiated fuel from the old BN-350 breeder reactor, which contains tons of material near the 20% borderline of highly-enriched
uranium, as well as tons of high-grade plutonium in spent fuel.
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One of the ironies of nature is that Pu-239 decays to U-235 – also a potential nuclear bomb material, and with a half-life of
three quarters of a billion years.
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Plutonium Mountain: Inside the 17-year mission to secure a dangerous legacy of Soviet nuclear testing