URANIUM MINING IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, HUNGARY AND POLAND 1945–1990
URANIUM MINING IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, BULGARIA, ROMANIA, HUNGARY AND POLAND 1945–1990

Summary/Abstract: This article describes uranium mining in the Central and Eastern European countries of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Poland from 1945 to 1990 as part of the Soviet nuclear weapons complex during the Cold War period of the global conflict between the USA and the USSR. Original language sources from the individual countries and international organisations were examined and evaluated. The results obtained were previously unknown even to the leading uranium mining specialists in the other countries studied, as the extremely strict secrecy surrounding the Soviet nuclear weapons programme also largely prevented the exchange of information between experts involved on the Soviet side. In the article, the individual countries’ share of uranium deliveries to the Soviet Union as the basis for the smelting of nuclear weapons-grade uranium concentrate and plutonium in the Soviet Union is specified, whereby the sometimes contradictory and unclear information due to the secrecy of the time is critically examined. The overall assessment is that uranium mining in the countries analysed served at least objectively to conserve the Soviet Union’s own uranium deposits at the expense of the countries under investigation.

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