Congressmen given access to Russian secret nuclear facility

MOSCOW -- A U.S. congressional delegation was given access Tuesday to a top secret production and storage site for weapons-grade plutonium, and said Russian officials at the plant were concerned the material could fall into the hands of terrorists.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and other lawmakers were the first members of Congress -- and the first Americans -- to set eyes on the underground facility in the closed Siberian city of Zheleznogorsk, the highly secretive cradle of the Soviet Union's nuclear might.

"The concern of the officials regarding a terrorist incident is high," Weldon, R-Pa., told a news conference on his return to Moscow. "Especially with the possibility of perhaps Chechen extremists attempting to get access to the site and ... weapons-grade materials."

"It is absolutely essential that the world understands it is not just Russia's problem," he said. "If terrorists were to get access or acquire one container of plutonium, the impact to the world could be devastating."

The visit is part of an initiative by Weldon and other members of Congress on the Armed Service Committee to improve transparency at Russia's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons facilities.

The delegation will present their recommendations to Congress next week.

Weldon said a particular worry was the replacement of some military security at the site with unarmed civilian personnel due to budget cutbacks. Site officials told Weldon that additional funding of $20 million was needed yearly to upgrade security at Zheleznogorsk.

Weldon praised Russian officials who obtained "unprecedented access" for the delegation, including lawmaker Alexei Alexandrov and Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyanstev.

Russia, which has shut down 10 other plutonium-producing plants, has continued operating plants at Zheleznogorsk, formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-26, and another site, Seversk, saying they are vital to the power supplies of the cities.

With U.S. assistance, Russia has agreed to shut down the plutonium production reactors in Zheleznogorsk and Seversk, but only if two fossil-fuel power plants are built to replace the electricity now supplied by the reactors. The U.S. Energy Department has announced a contract for two American companies to oversee construction of the two coal-burning power plants.

The nuclear facilities at Seversk and Zheleznogorsk produce enough plutonium each week to make three nuclear warheads. They are considered among the most dangerous in the world because they are similar in design to the Chernobyl reactor that exploded in 1986.

Weldon said that officials at the plant had not expressed particular concern about the safety of the reactor's structure.

The congressional delegation included Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., and Corrine Brown, D-Fla.