Tomsk-7 nuclear processing centers

Seversk (Russian: Северск) is a town (since 1956) in Tomsk Oblast, Russia. It is located at 56°37′N 84°50′E, on the bank of Tom River. Population is 118,800 (2001). It is also known as Tomsk-7.

As is the tradition with Soviet towns containing secret facilities (Ozersk aka Chelyabinsk-40, Zheleznogorsk aka Atomgrad aka Krasnoyarsk-26, Sarov aka Arzamas-16), the name is actually a P.O. Box number and implies that the place is located some distance from the city of Tomsk (15 km to the NW, in fact).

Seversk is the site of Siberian Chemical Combine (Sibkhimkombinat), founded in 1954. It is comprised of several nuclear reactors and chemical plants for separation, enrichment and reprocessing of uranium and plutonium. Nuclear warheads were being produced and stored on the premises.

One of the most serious nuclear accidents at SCC occurred on April 6, 1993, when a tank containing a highly radioactive solution exploded.

The Siberian Chemical Combine (SKhK), located in Seversk (formerly known as Tomsk-7), is one of the principal nuclear materials production sites in the MINATOM complex, with uranium processing facilities, production reactors, a spent fuel reprocessing plant, a uranium enrichment plant, and a variety of other processing and storage facilities. Tomsk-7 was established in 1949 to produce and process fissile materials for the nuclear weapons program. The Siberian Chemical Combine (originally the Combine 816) is Russia’s largest plutonium production and fissile material management complex.