Only the diseased winds blowing north in the aftermath gave any indication it was there. The event occurred in the town of Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, a closed city built around the Mayak plant. It is blamed for 239 deaths from lung, liver and bone cancers up to 2003, representing a tenth of lung cancers and almost half of bone-cancer deaths among the workforce. It consisted of steel tanks mounted in a concrete base, 8.2 meters underground. From the outset, the majority of residents worked or lived near the Mayak nuclear complex under extremely dangerous conditions. Yet the majority of residents do not want to leave. The explosion in the Kyshtym Nuclear accident was due to a malfunction in the cooling system. Half a million people in Ozersk and its surrounding area are said to have been exposed to five times as much radiation as those living in the areas of Ukraine affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The Kyshtym disaster, which occurred at Mayak in Russia on 29 … In the next 10 to 11 hours, the radioactive cloud moved towards the north-east, reaching 300–350 kilometers from the accident. Victims were seen with skin 'sloughing off' their faces, hands and other exposed parts of their bodies." Officially, there were no casualties, but some residents say the radiation claimed many victims. For years, the Soviet Union’s political and scientific leadership withheld the effects of extreme exposure to radiation on the health of the city’s inhabitants, and their future offspring. The result of the Goiania nuclear disaster was the rapid death of four people and the chronic radiation sickness of several others. While accurate data is not available thanks to the authorities’ extreme secrecy and frequent denials, the gravestones of many young residents in Ozersk’s cemetery bear witness to the secret the Soviets tried to bury alongside victims of the Mayak plant. Until 1989 the Soviet government refused to acknowledge that the event had occurred, even though more than 10,000 people were evacuated and probably hundreds died from the effects of radiation. The 'Kyshtym Accident', which happened on 29 September 1957 at the Mayak Production Association (PA) nuclear complex, located about 10 km to the east of the town of Kyshtym in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian Federation, although rated on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale as one of the most severe nuclear accidents in the world, remained little known in the … [3] The explosion of radioactive waste was composed of dry nitrate and acetate salts in a tank. The Chernobyl disaster: The death of Legasov December 1, 2019; Chernobyl: the fate of convicts November 29, 2019; Chernobyl syndrome and Coronavirus COVID-19 May 31, 2020; The ChNPP is a testing ground for numerous experiments Only in 1989 did residents learn they had been exposed to radiation: The government released details about Kyshtym and the dumping of radioactive waste from Chelyabinsk-65 into nearby lakes and reservoirs between 1948 and 1951. How to increase brand awareness through consistency; Dec. 11, 2020 Map of the East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT), the area contaminated by the Kyshtym disaster. This affected the radioactive waste of the plant. In 1957 Mayak was the site of the Kyshtym disaster, which at the time was the worst nuclear accident in history. They are happy in their fenced-in paradise. Previously contaminated areas within the affected area include the Techa river which had previously received 2.75 MCi (100 PBq) of deliberately dumped waste, and Lake Karachay which had received 120 MCi (4,000 PBq). The barbed-wire fence remains an intrinsic part of the city’s landscape and the citizens’ psychological makeup and collective identity. Foreigners and non-resident Russians are still prohibited from entering the city without permission from the FSB (Russian secret police), and filming in the area is strictly forbidden. @media all and (max-width: 600px){ Because of the secrecy surrounding Mayak, the populations of affected areas were not initially informed of the accident. Life in a closed town implies not only physical security but financial stability for their families; Ozersk children, they assert, are offered great opportunities for a successful future. After World War II, the Soviet Union lagged behind the US in development of nuclear weapons, so it started a rapid research and development program to produce a sufficient amount of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The fallout of the cloud resulted in a long-term contamination of an area of more than 800 to 20,000 square kilometers (depending on what contamination level is considered significant), primarily with caesium-137 and strontium-90. The Mayak disaster is believed to be the third-most serious nuclear accident ever recorded. The total number of officially registered casualties is more than 500,000 people not including the military personnel of the construction battalions. • View the trailer for the documentary City 40 here, Wed 20 Jul 2016 02.30 EDT It is where they buried their parents, and some of their sons and daughters too. Codenamed City 40, Ozersk was the birthplace of the Soviet nuclear weapons programme after the second world war. One book claims that "in 1992, a study conducted by the Institute of Biophysics at the former Soviet Health Ministry in Chelyabinsk found that 8,015 people had died within the preceding 32 years as a result of the accident." dumping of its waste into nearby lakes and rivers, creened at Bertha DocHouse, London WC1, on 23 July. It is difficult for outsiders to comprehend how the residents of City 40 can continue to live in a place they know is slowly killing them. Kyshtym disaster. Not known how many it killed but it was certainly more than 1. en.wikipedia.org Kyshtym disaster. In the coming days and weeks, 134 military personnel were hospitalized with acute radiation syndrome (SAR), of which 28 firefighters and officials died within months. Those who had been relocated here were considered missing by their relatives, as if they had disappeared into oblivion. And, in 1976 Zhores Medvedev, an exiled Soviet geneticist, brought the “incident” to the atten- tion of the scientific community by claiming that buried nuclear waste material near Kyshtym exploded, killing hundreds of people and contaminating “a large area, probably more than a thousand square miles in size.” By contrast, only 6,000 death certificates have been found for residents of the Techa riverside between 1950 and 1982 from all causes of death, though perhaps the Soviet study considered a larger geographic area affected by the airborne plume. Medvedev's description of the disaster in the New Scientist was initially derided by western nuclear industry sources, but the core of his story was soon confirmed by Professor Leo Tumerman, former head of the Biophysics Laboratory at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow. The temperature in it started to rise, resulting in evaporation and a chemical explosion of the dried waste, consisting mainly of ammonium nitrate and acetates (see ammonium nitrate/fuel oil bomb). Because of the high level of radioactivity, the waste was heating itself through decay heat (though a chain reaction was not possible). Blog. But a local journalist says they are not concerned with what the outside world thinks of them and their way of life. Initially Mayak was dumping high-level radioactive waste into a nearby river, which flowed to the river Ob, flowing further down to the Arctic Ocean. This is where they were born, got married, and raised their families. More recent epidemiological studies suggest that around 49 to 55 cancer deaths among riverside residents can be associated to radiation exposure. The Kyshtym disaster was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site in Russia for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant of the Soviet Union. The Kyshtym disaster is the second largest devastation after Chernobyl. The radioactive concentration there is reported to exceed 120 million curies – 2.5 times the amount of radiation released in Chernobyl. Vague reports of a "catastrophic accident" causing "radioactive fallout over the Soviet and many neighboring states" began appearing in the western press between 13 and 14 April 1958, and the first details emerged in the Viennese paper Die Presse on 17 March 1959. Prezi’s Big Ideas 2021: Expert advice for the new year; Dec. 15, 2020. You can discuss this article in the forum. -webkit-columns: 320px 2; On the side roads, local women sell fruit and vegetables. In a village about 20 minutes outside Ozersk, a digital clock in the town square switches constantly between the local time and the current level of radiation in the air (though the latter reading is never accurate). Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 07.51 EST, “Those in paradise were given a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. @media all and (max-width: 400px){ column-gap: 45px; According to Gyorgiy, who invoked the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the relevant Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) files, the CIA knew of the 1957 Mayak accident since 1959, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling American nuclear industry. Horrific History Podcast’s co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender discuss radiation poisoning in history, beginning with late Renaissance alchemy research in 1603 and continuing on to address more modern history including the Manhattan Project, Kyshtym Disaster, Chernobyl, and … All rights reserved. Ozersk and the surrounding region is one of the most contaminated places on the planet, referred to by some as the “graveyard of the Earth”. Not by the explosion and the initial exposure alone, but due to a long period of toxic … From the late 1940s, people here started to get sick and die: the victims of long-term exposure to radiation. Death toll: At least 200 people died of radiation sickness and it is estimated that several hundred more died from radiation-related cancers. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. It is a deal they still adhere to today, in a city where almost all of Russia’s reserve fissile material is stored. She is the producer and director of the feature-length documentary City 40, which will be screened at Bertha DocHouse, London WC1, on 23 July, and will be available on Netflix from September, Available for everyone, funded by readers. (Courtesy of Alisa Nikulina/Ecodefense) Map of the East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT): area contaminated by the Kyshtym disaster. In 1946, the Soviets began construction of City 40 in total secrecy, around the huge Mayak nuclear plant on the shores of Lake Irtyash. Kyshtym accident Chernobyl History > Kyshtym accident. .headertext{font-size: 100px;} Mayak as seen from across the Techa River, which it has contaminated for decades. Kyshtym disaster, explosion of nuclear waste from a plutonium-processing plant near Kyshtym, Russia, on September 29, 1957. This would include the effects of all radioactive releases into the river, 98% of which happened long before the 1957 accident, but it would not include the effects of the airborne plume that was carried north-east. There were no immediate casualties as a result of the explosion, but it released an estimated 20 MCi (800 PBq) of radioactivity. Map of the East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT), the area contaminated by the Kyshtym disaster. Few do, because it would mean losing the privileges of being a resident of this closed city. @media all and (max-width: 500px){ Given that the United States had made significant advancements in the research and production of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union felt the need to invest in a similar program. Today, with its beautiful lakes, perfumed flowers and picturesque tree-lined streets, Ozersk resembles a suburban 1950s American town – like one of those too-perfect places depicted in The Twilight Zone. Facilities for monitoring operation of the coolers and the content of the tanks were inadequate. Music booms from teenage boys’ stereos as they show off their skateboarding skills to young girls. Over four decades, Mayak is said to have dumped 200 million curies of radioactive waste into the environment, equal to four “Chernobyls”, although this is always denied by the authorities. .headertext{font-size: 60px;} Because of the secrecy surrounding Mayak, the populations of affected areas were not initially informed of the accident. 2010 Jan Rieke Click here to view Wikimedia source. @media all and (max-width: 370px){ During the accident, the effects of the steam explosion caused two deaths within the facility: one immediately after the explosion and one by a lethal dose of radiation. Chernobyl: another chance. Deep in the vast forests of Russia’s Ural mountains lies the forbidden city of Ozersk. But it was only in 1976 that Zhores Medvedev made the nature and extent of the disaster known to the world. For the first eight years, residents were forbidden from leaving the city, writing letters or making any contact with the outside world – including members of their own family. Samira Goetschel is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. !” written in large red letters to emphasise the point. A storage facility for liquid nuclear waste was added around 1953. The Kyshtym disaster was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Soviet Union. The Mayak plant’s management has also overseen the dumping of its waste into nearby lakes and rivers, which flow into the River Ob and on into the Arctic Ocean. But the pact has had deadly consequences. The Kyshtym disaster contaminated an area up to 20,000 square kilometres, known as the East-Ural Radioactive Trace, and thousands of people near the plant were evacuated. All six reactors were on Lake Kyzyltash and used an open cycle cooling system, discharging contaminated water directly back into the lake. The death toll from the Chernobyl disaster is still unknown, but experts believe that thousands of people died due to severe poisoning, radiation burn, cancer, and other severe diseases. At least 22 villages were exposed to radiation from the disaster, with a total population of around 10,000 people evacuated. The Soviet government in 1968 disguised the EURT area by creating the East Ural Nature Reserve, which prohibited any unauthorised access to the affected area. Over a period of 45 years more than 500,000 people were exposed to radiation, many of them at levels 20 times greater than the victims of Chernobyl. Dec. 30, 2020. After the accident 248 villages were resettled from the Techa river. It measured as a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), making it the third most serious nuclear accident ever recorded, behind the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Chernobyl disaster (both Level 7 on the INES). To reduce the spread of radioactive contamination after the accident, contaminated soil was excavated and stockpiled in fenced enclosures that were called "graveyards of the earth". One of the nearby lakes has been so heavily contaminated by plutonium that locals have renamed it the “Lake of Death” or “Plutonium Lake”. [8] During this catastrophe, a poorly maintained storage tank exploded, releasing 20 million curies (740 PBq ) in the form of 50–100 tons of high-level radioactive waste . ... (observed=59, expected=69.23) is not significantly different from 100. Kyshtym Accident. Environmental concerns were not taken seriously during the early development stage. According to some Ozersk residents, the dumping continues today. Ozersk’s residents are, however, permitted to exit the city with a special pass, and are even allowed to leave permanently if they wish never to return. Specifically, the facility produced plutonium for Soviet nuclear weapons from 19… This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. The Kyshtym nuclear energy complex lies approximately 15 kilometers east of the city of Kyshtym in the eastern foothills of the south-central Ural Mountains and on the south shore of Lake Kyzyltash (see Fig. The city’s residents know the truth, however: that their water is contaminated, their mushrooms and berries are poisoned, and their children may be sick. They believe they are Russia’s “chosen ones”, and even take pride in being citizens of a closed city. -moz-column-gap: 45px; -webkit-column-gap: 45px; City 40’s inhabitants were told they were “the nuclear shield and saviours of the world”, and that everyone on the outside was an enemy. However, due to a lack of personnel with adequate expertise in nuclear physics, various safety concerns existed since the … In the absence of verifiable information, exaggerated accounts of the disaster were given. The most notable accident, the so-called “Kyshtym disaster” happened on 29 September 1957, when the cooling system of one of the waste storage tanks failed but went undetected until the tank exploded with a force equivalent to about 70 tons of TNT. The true number of fatalities remains uncertain because radiation-induced cancer is clinically indistinguishable from any other cancer, and its incidence rate can only be measured through epidemiological studies. 5 Unknown Nuclear Disasters: Chernobyl Is Far from the Only One, Chernobyl is not the world’s only nuclear disaster, there are plenty of others to keep you up at night., Interesting Engineering, By Marcia Wendorf, 2 Aug 19 The Kyshtym Disaster 1). On a typical day, young mothers push newborns in prams and children play in the street. Gaps in Soviet physicists' knowledge about nuclear physics at the time made it difficult to judge the safety of many decisions. In most – though certainly not all – residents’ eyes, the fence around Ozersk does not serve to keep them in against their wishes, but rather to keep outsiders away from their paradise, protecting them from “the enemy”. The most commonly quoted estimate is 200 deaths due to cancer, but the origin of this number is not clear. Kyshtym disaster, explosion of buried nuclear waste from a plutonium-processing plant near Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk oblast, Russia (then in the U.S.S.R.), on September 29, 1957. Monument in Kyshtym on the road to Mayak in memory of the emergency and recovery workers of the Kyshtym Accident. When Lake Kyzyltash quickly became contaminated, Lake Karachay was used for open-air storage, keeping the contamination a slight distance from the reactors but soon making Lake Karachay the "most polluted spot on Earth". This area is usually referred to as the East-Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT). Behind guarded gates and barbed wire fences stands a beautiful enigma – a hypnotic place that seems to exist in a different dimension. The 1957 Mayak nuclear disaster is also known as the Kyshtym disaster. It was a warm fall day … It is prestigious to live in Ozersk. In the nearby forest, families swim in the lake as older folk rest on park benches, enjoying a lazy afternoon watching passersby. .headertext{font-size: 50px;} Site created by Teodora Hadjiyska | and powered by Visia. On the outskirts of Ozersk, there is an oversized “no trespassing” sign in English and Russian, with “Attention!! One nearby lake has been so heavily contaminated that locals have renamed it the 'Lake of Death'. [1] For decades, this city of 100,000 people did not appear on any maps, and its inhabitants’ identities were erased from the Soviet census. One nearby lake has been so heavily contaminated that locals have renamed it the 'Lake of Death' City 40 residents have been casualties in a number of nuclear incidents, including the 1957 … .headertext{font-size: 40px;} Wikicommons CC BY 2.0 . @media all and (max-width: 700px){ Starting in 1989 the Soviet government gradually declassified documents pertaining to the disaster. Some were evacuated after a week but it took almost 2 years for evacuations to occur at other sites. It would house the workers and scientists transported from across the country to lead the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons programme, and build an atomic bomb. The Mayak plant was built in haste between 1945 and 1948. He says the majority of his fellow residents, like him, just wish to be left alone to live in “peace”. Radioactive contamination in Goiania was a case of radioactive infection that occurred in the Brazilian city of Goiania on September 13, 1987. A week later, on 6 October 1957, an operation for evacuating 10,000 people from the affected area started, still without giving an explanation of the reasons for evacuation. The level of radiation in Ozyorsk itself at about 0.1 mSv a year is claimed to be safe for humans, but the area of the EURT is still heavily contaminated with radioactivity. -moz-columns: 320px 2; Kyshtym-57: A Siberian Nuclear Disaster. The final death toll of the Kyshtym Disaster can never be known; however, a number of independent sources claim that fatalities must have been upwards of 10,000. }. The area closest to the accident produced 66 diagnosed cases of chronic radiation syndrome, providing the bulk of the data about this condition. The Kyshtym disaster was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Soviet Union. .. .headertext{font-size: 80px;} In exchange, the residents were ordered to maintain secrets about their lives and work. Since Ozyorsk/Mayak (named Chelyabinsk-40, then Chelyabinsk-65, until 1994) was not marked on maps, the disaster was named after Kyshtym, the nearest known town. Most of this contamination settled out near the site of the accident and contributed to the pollution of the Techa River, but a plume containing 2 MCi (80 PBq) of radionuclides spread out over hundreds of kilometers. .headertext{font-size: 70px;} Kyshtym disaster 1957. Only the Geiger counters used to check the produce before it is purchased point to the dark secret that haunts this tranquil urban scene. 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