Guangyuan
Plant 821
32°26'N 105°52'E
In addition to the original plutonium production reactor at Jiuquan [Yumen], the Chinese buildt a second, similar, plutonium reactor and chemical separation plant at Guangyuan [Kuangyuan]. This facility began production in mid-1973, with approximately the same plutonium production capacity as the Yumen reactor of 300-400 Kg per annum. Guangyuan is centered on a 1,000MW light water graphite reactor [LWGR] fueled with natural Uranium. This reactor is the largest plutonium producing reactor in China, with about twice the power level of the reactor at Jiuquan, and is complemented by China’s largest plutonium separation facility.
In the late 1960s as part of the "third line" effort to relocate critical defense infrastructure in the relatively remote interior, China built new [allegedly underground] facilities supplement the plutonium production reactor at
Jiuquan
[third line plutonium production reactor at Guangyuan
], the design and fabrication facility at Haiyan
[third line design and fabrication facility at Mianyang
], and the gaseous diffusion plant at Lanzhou
[third line plutonium processing facility at Yibin
].
Photographic Evaluation Report
High resolution imagery is presently available only from declassified CORONA imagery. As of 07 October 2000 no Russian 2-meter resolution KVR-1000 imagery was available via the SPIN-2 service on TerraServer. Three images of this area were present in archival Space Imaging IKONOS 1-meter imagery available on the CARTERRA™ Archive.
Sources and Methods
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/guangyuan.htm
Maintained by Robert Sherman
Originally created by John Pike
Updated Saturday, October 07, 2000 9:26:26 AM
