The World - News from Aug. 13, 1989

The Soviet Union closed a nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium at a military plant near Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals, the official news agency Tass reported. Tass said the decision was in line with Moscow’s policy of reducing production of fissionable materials for nuclear weapons. It said two more reactors at the plant will be shut down next year. It was not clear whether the plant mentioned by Tass was the one where a powerful nuclear explosion occurred in 1957, forcing the evacuation of 100,000 people and leaving a radioactive trail 65 miles long and five miles wide.