Success Highlights:
A major facility in Kazakhstan has moved away from its past association with WMD production and instead is focusing on manufacturing Copper Beryllium master alloy, a commercial commodity that is valued, not feared by the world community. NUKEM, a nuclear services company based in Danbury, CT, is helping to build this new civilian business.
This project is the second NUKEM venture launched through the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program and its second partnership with the ULBA Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. NUKEM is also working with ULBA to process valueless uranium concentrates into marketable Low Enriched Uranium.
The Copper Beryllium manufacturing project sprang out of the success of the earlier ULBA contract as well as NUKEM’s long history of profitable work in Kazakhstan and other states in the region, which dates back to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
Copper Beryllium master alloy — also known as CuBe — is a metal that is currently in great demand around the world for a variety of applications, ranging from small appliances and computers to telecommunications and automotive electronics. ULBA already has experience producing the alloy, which it did throughout the Cold War to serve the needs of the Soviet aerospace industry. This project’s goal was to modernize ULBA’s production facilities and focus its CuBe production capabilities entirely on commercial purposes. As a result, Kazakhstan is now the world’s second largest vertically integrated producer of this critical material.
The project began when one of the four IPP project partners — Brush Wellman of Cleveland, OH — purchased a used arc welding furnace (used for the production of CuBe alloy) and shipped it to Canada where it was refurbished and updated before being delivered to ULBA. Brush Wellman, an engineered materials firm with extensive experience in alloy production, also provided detailed blueprints, designs and training to ULBA personnel. This technical assistance allowed ULBA to replicate the manufacturing set-up at Brush’s Ohio facility. Once the plan is fully implemented, ULBA’s CuBe production will have risen from a maximum capacity of 75,000 lbs. per year to 200,000 lbs. per year. Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is providing technical assistance and expertise, while NUKEM is marketing the master alloy, facilitating shipping and handling all other tasks in connection with ULBA’s commercial transactions.
The commercial parties to the project are already seeing substantial rewards. On the U.S. side, Brush Wellman has secured a new source of Copper Beryllium that will allow it to conserve U.S. domestic ore stockpile. Kazakhstan is likewise benefiting from the project’s success. As of 2004, the venture had sustained or created 430 jobs and in 2004 alone, ULBA generated profits of $5.5 million.
The CuBe master alloy production has, however, yielded something of equal — if not more — importance than earnings alone. As a result of the project, Kazakh scientists formerly involved in the production of CuBe alloy for military purposes or in WMD research and development have been reassigned to peaceful, commercial work. Transitioning highly skilled Kazakh scientists away from WMD development to commercial work is not only important for Kazakhstan’s economy — it is of vital importance to each and every member of the world community. Proliferation experts, politicians and citizens alike, shudder at the possibility of a nuclear scientist with no steady income joining up with a terrorist group or rogue state simply to pay their bills. Thanks to NUKEM, Brush Wellman, ULBA and the IPP program, that threat is substantially reduced in Kazakhstan.
NUKEM: www.nukeminc.com