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Russia’s nuclear weapons laboratories, searching for a new raison d’etre
since the end of the Cold War, want to turn their talents to commercial
projects such as designing medical instruments and exploring for oil. But
like their counterparts in the US, the Russians have a long way to go in
converting their research to peaceful ends.

‘There are no success stories,’ says Boris Alekseev, head of defence
conversion at the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom), which controls
the nation’s nuclear weapons programme. Alekseev told the AAAS that weapons
scientists lacked the business acumen to find commercial outlets for their
technical skills.

‘What we need is assistance in marketing,’ he says. ‘Our military experts
don’t have any experience in studying potential markets . . . We have no
experience in dealing with potential customers.’ The Russians also want
financial assistance from abroad, offering to pay any returns in hard currency.

US officials have been trying to help the Russians find customers for
their ideas in the market economies of the West. However, the US government
is unlikely to provide financial support for Russian defence-conversion
projects, says Gloria Duffy, a US deputy assistant defence secretary.

Alekseev says Minatom’s expertise in developing sophisticated diagnostic
equipment to study the interiors of nuclear weapons could be used to produce
a variety of medical imaging machines, such as CAT scanners. This technology
could also be used in control systems for pipelines and high-voltage equipment,
and in welding, he says.

Even skills developed from underground nuclear testing might have commercial
value. Minatom could use its geological expertise to identify deposits of
oil, he says. In addition, Minatom – which is also in charge of Russia’s
civilian reactors – is planning to develop a new generation of nuclear power
plants, designed with built-in safety features that would make catastrophic
failures highly unlikely.

Some laboratory employees have already left weapons work for new businesses
in the Russian free-market economy, but Alekseev says he knows of no weapons
researchers who have left the country to work for other nations. ‘It’s a
very difficult task to keep good people working,’ Alekseev says.

At present, Russian officials have no plans to close or merge any nuclear
weapons facilities, he says. That contrasts with the US energy department,
which is considering whether any of its laboratories and weapons factories
should close.

John Gibbons, science adviser to President Bill Clinton, says some changes
in US weapons facilities are likely. The energy department has two independent
weapons laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California.

‘That’s clearly anachronistic,’ says Gibbons. One of the laboratories
could be turned over to civilian use. On the other hand, closing one of
them altogether would waste the technology and the talent which, Gibbons
says, is a ‘silly option’.