The Mining-Chemical Combine is a Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FGUP) and part of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom. The core activity of the Mining-Chemical Combine for many years was to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Its history traces back to February 26, 1950 when Joseph Stalin signed a decree ordering the building of Complex 815.
The complex had an underground section where two straight-flow AD and ADE-1 reactors (shut down in 1992) and an ADE-2 reactor (still in operation) were installed. The operating reactor has closed circuit coolant circulation and is used to provide heating and hot-water to the city of Zheleznogorsk. There is also an underground radiochemical plant for the extraction of plutonium.
Conversion of the enterprise for civilian uses began in 1995.
At present, its core activities include:
- transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel;
- generation of thermal and electrical energy at the underground thermal power plant to provide heating and hot water for the city of Zheleznogorsk;
- production of polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon;
- disabling defense complex facilities;
- building a "dry" storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
The Mining-Chemical Combine is an underground facility that has no analogues in the world. The scale of underground development during its construction was comparable to that of the Moscow Metro. The combine currently employs over 8,500 people.