# North West Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy

North West Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy also known as the Ninth Academy or Plant 221 was established by the Ninth Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China in Amdo, Qinghai, Tibet, China in 1958. For nearly twenty years, the facility was responsible for the production of China's nuclear weapons.

## History

On January 15, 1955, Mao Zedong presided over an enlarged meeting of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee to study the development of atomic energy industry. The meeting listened to reports from Li Siguang, Minister of Geology and geologist, Liu Jie, Secretary of the Party Group and Executive Vice Minister of the Ministry of Geology, and Qian Sanqiang, Director of the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and nuclear physicist, discussed and made strategic decisions on the development of the atomic energy industry and the development of nuclear weapons. This meeting ushered in a new era in the construction of China's atomic energy industry.
On November 16, 1956, the 51st session of the First National People's Congress passed a resolution to establish the Third Ministry of Machine Building of the People's Republic of China, which was responsible for the construction of atomic energy and the development of nuclear weapons, with Song Renqiong as the minister. On January 8, 1958, the Central Government established the Ninth Bureau of the Third Ministry of Machine Building, which was responsible for the development, production and base construction of nuclear weapons. Li Jue was the director, and Wu Jilin and Guo Yinghui were deputy directors. On February 11, 1958, due to the adjustment and merger of industrial institutions and functions, the Third Ministry of Machine Building was renamed the Second Ministry of Machine Building. On July 13 of the same year (the Ninth Institute used December 28, the date of its establishment, when the seal of the Beijing Ninth Institute was used), the Beijing Ninth Institute was established, and nuclear weapons research work officially began.
According to the Sino-Soviet "Agreement on New Defense Technology" on October 15, 1957, the Soviet Union helped China design and build a design institute (codenamed 221) to study the structure of the atomic bomb and a factory (codenamed 342, which was not built) to produce and assemble the atomic bomb. The codename "221" appeared in the country's top secret documents for the first time. In October 1957, the Third Ministry of Machine Building and the Soviet General Design Bureau signed the "221 Project Design Work Detailed List" of the "221 Factory Project Design Task Book". The 221 Factory was preliminarily designed by the Third Ministry of Machine Building Design Institute and the Soviet Leningrad Design Institute. The leaders and technical personnel of the relevant bureaus of the Third Ministry of Machine Building and Soviet experts formed a site selection committee to be responsible for site selection.
On March 6, 1958, a site selection committee composed of experts from China and the Soviet Union conducted a field investigation. After multiple discussions by the site selection committee and research by the ministry leadership, it was agreed that Jinyintan, Haiyan County, Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, would be selected as the site for the Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Development Base. In July 1958, the central government approved the construction of the Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Development Base in Haiyan, Qinghai, code-named "02" unit, internally known as the "221" base.

## Work unit

* There are 9 work units in the first plant area, which are mainly responsible for the development of metal components and special material components of nuclear devices, neutron sources, detonators, the development, production, assembly and environmental testing of ignition and control system components, the assembly of nuclear warhead inner ball components and the moved machine.
* There are 9 work units in the second plant area, which are mainly responsible for the formulation development, molding and processing of high-energy explosives, the overall assembly of nuclear devices and ignition and control systems, and the joint testing of systems.
* The third factory area is an explosives warehouse.
* There are 10 work units in the fourth plant area, which are mainly responsible for the environmental condition testing and research of nuclear installations.
* The fifth factory area is a waste treatment plant.
* There are 6 work areas in the sixth plant area, which is an explosion test site. It is mainly responsible for explosion tests such as supplementation, correction and verification of the fluid dynamics design of nuclear devices, as well as neutron explosion tests, structural design explosion tests of energy transmission systems and other tests.
* There are four work units in the seventh plant area, which are mainly responsible for nuclear physics near-field physical testing research, radiochemical analysis research, critical and subcritical experimental research and environmental monitoring.
* The eighth factory area is for transportation vehicle repair and garage.
* Factory Area 9 is a fuel depot.
* The tenth factory area is a base for mechanical processing and mechanical repair.
* Factory Area 11 is a dangerous goods platform.
* Factory Area 12 is a general cargo platform.
* Factory Area 13 is a railway station.
* The fourteenth factory area is a thermal power plant.
* The fifteenth factory area is the water supply source.
* The sixteenth factory area is a sewage treatment plant.
* Factory Area 17 is a warehouse for grain and daily necessities.
* The Eighteenth Factory Area is home to the 221 base’s leadership, communications, technology, administrative archives, schools, hospitals, shops, post offices, theaters, and residential areas.
* In addition, Factory Area 16 (wastewater treatment plant) and Factory Area 17 (transit warehouse of marshalling yard Haiyan Station and equipment warehouses in the factory area) are under the management of the Supply Department and are classified as factories for production services and are not included in the living area.

## Branch

The first branch is located in the first factory area, covering an area of 153,846 square meters and a building area of 43,168 square meters. It consists of large workshops such as 101, 102, 103, and 104 (each with a building area of about 6,000 square meters) and more than 20 buildings such as branch office buildings and auxiliary facilities. It has an inspection department and is responsible for 70% of the industrial output value of the whole factory.
* 101 is a nuclear device metal parts processing workshop.
* 102 is a special material (uranium-238, beryllium 049) parts finishing, thermonuclear material product molding, processing, coating and neutron source production workshop.
* 103 is a radio control system parts processing workshop.
* 104 is a radio control system parts assembly workshop, and the inspection department is responsible for the environmental testing of radio control system parts. Because the branch is very important, a reinforced company of troops is stationed to protect it.
The Second Branch is located in the Second Factory Area, covering an area of 546,021 square meters and a building area of 25,105 square meters. It is the largest branch in the base. Most of the workshops are bunkers and semi-bunkers, with a total of 33 buildings. The main buildings are workshops and work numbers 201, 202, 203, 204, and 205
* 201 is the explosive molding workshop, mainly with 500-type and 800-type isostatic hydraulic presses
* 202 is the thermonuclear material bonding and density testing workshop.
* 203 is the assembly and final assembly workshop.
* 204 is the high-energy explosive formula development and physical and chemical experiment workshop.
* 205 is the mold and maintenance workshop.
The third branch is located in the tenth factory area, covering an area of 312,106 square meters and a construction area of 39,404 square meters. It is mainly responsible for casting, forging, woodworking packaging boxes, oxygen and liquid nitrogen production, and equipment maintenance workshops.
The Fourth Branch is located in the Fourteenth Factory Area. It is a thermal power plant (including the water plant, which is in the Fifteenth Factory Area). It covers an area of 157,697 square meters and a construction area of 22,984 square meters. It has 5 boilers and 2 12,000-kilowatt generators, which supply electricity, steam, heating and hot water for production and living throughout the factory.
The Technical Research Department is located in the Science and Technology Library of the 18th Plant Area (opposite the main plant office building). It is mainly responsible for the design, detonation and environmental testing of nuclear devices, as well as the management of technical archives and books.

## Cultural revolution

At the time cultural revolution, two factions struggled to take plant-221 which resulted in development of nuclear weapon disrupted and stopped for month. Several scientists and employees were beaten to death, tortured, suicide, or disabled, with the number of casualties more than 3,000 people.
The weaponization process of the nuclear device was slow. At that time, the production of the product was carried out in the manner of "production and finalization at the same time". Batch production of 01 was carried out without finalization, and the Second Artillery Corps did not accept it.

## Nuclear weapon testing and weapon production

Ninth academy from plant 221 conducted 16 nuclear tests in Lop Nur from 16 October 1964 until 17 June 1974.
Plant 221 developed and produced China's first-generation nuclear weapon until being decommissioned in 1987. The number of weapons produced is not known but estimated at 200 to 400 warheads.
Before being decommissioned, plant 221 developed and produced product "118" conventional warhead for DF-3A missile to use by Royal Saudi rocket forces after buying DF-3A missile from China.

## Decommissioned

Following international situation in 1985, normalization relations with Soviet Union and end of cold war, China began to decommission plant 221 in 1987. The process ended in mid-1990s, and Qinghai province government changed plant 221 to museum for visitors.