The major security concern about Russia’s secret nuclear cities

Closed Cities & Nuclear Entrepreneurship In Russia JULY 30, 2012 by EDWARD PERELLO Faced with a dearth of opportunity, the aged nuclear scientist would not need much imagination, nor would he have to look far, to find a buyer interested in an exchange that would provide him with a hefty retirement package with which to live out his remaining
years….

.Russia’s ten nuclear cities contain the former Soviet Union’s principal nuclear weapons research, design and production facilities, and to the ordinary citizen, they weren’t really there. Nuclear cities were not officially recognised as existing until 1992 as they were amongst the Soviet unions many “closed cities” that were involved in certain sensitive activities. Located in remote regions around the country, closed cities were not labelled on any
publicly-available map and were isolated from the world.

Surrounded by double fences, troops, and security checkpoints, access
was tightly controlled by the KGB. While some closed cities were
freely accessible to regular Soviet citizens (but never to
foreigners), the nuclear cities were off limits to all but nuclear
workers, their families, and support staff, who were not allowed to
leave their isolation unless on official business. Mail was
intercepted before delivery. External telephone calls were restricted.
Even access to the nuclear facilities themselves required one to pass
additional checkpoints and military cordons. Since the disintegration
of the Soviet Union, 42 of these closed cities have been acknowledged
by the Russian government; but a further 15 or so are believed to not
exist today……
Higher wages and improved access to better quality food, healthcare
and consumer goods than other Soviet citizens guaranteed the loyalty
of the men and women regarded as elite. Up to 150,000 people were
employed in weapons-related work at the peak of nuclear productivity,
and even as the cities began to shift away from weapons labour during
the late 1980s, when strategic reductions and ageing plutonium
reactors convinced the Soviet leadership to scale back production, the
cities instead filled domestic orders for power-related activities and
spent fuel management. This all changed with the disintegration of the
Soviet Union….Despite improvements in salaries in the early 2000s,
thousands of jobs were lost through the restructuring of the Russian
nuclear industry, mandated by continual shifts in defence policy. The
reduction from 150,000 to 67,000 nuclear workers between 1994 and 2004
involved mostly the younger scientists leaving voluntarily, to seek
employment in the private sector. But the next round of cuts, ending
this year, is anticipated to be much harder to accommodate.
Older workers leaving today risk being considered untenable by
potential employers in the nuclear private sector, especially as its
ranks bulge from previous cuts. Additionally, ageing workers are
viewed as having fewer years left in them, regardless of the jobs they
take, meaning that any company hiring them would see fewer returns on
new training. Faced with a dearth of opportunity, the aged nuclear
scientist would not need much imagination, nor would he have to look
far, to find a buyer interested in an exchange that would provide him
with a hefty retirement package with which to live out his remaining
years. This then, is the major security concern and it is curious that
it has rarely been discussed in international affairs.
The announcement last year that Russia is to leave the International
Science and Technology Centre (ISTC), a multilateral research
institute employing former Soviet scientists in basic and commercially
relevant nuclear research, creates concerns for the future.