Lake Karachay Lake Karachay (russian: Карача́й), sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, was a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Maya ...

, located in the southern Ural Mountains in eastern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, was a dumping ground for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

facilities. It was also affected by a string of accidents and disasters causing the surrounding areas to be highly contaminated with

radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

. Although the lake has an area much smaller than that of the

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The ...

, and although three settlements, Ozyorsk, and some 7 kilometers away are inhabited, and the lake is surrounded by

Mayak The Mayak Production Association (russian: Производственное объединение «Маяк», , from 'lighthouse') is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation, housing a reprocessing plant. The closest ...

, the lake is still technically a natural area. It has been described as the "most

polluted Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

spot on Earth" by the

Worldwatch Institute The Worldwatch Institute was a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., founded by Lester R. Brown. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan Surv ...

.Lenssen, "Nuclear Waste: The Problem that Won't Go Away", Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C., 1991: 15.

History

Built in the late 1940s,

was one of Russia's most prominent nuclear weapons factories. The factory was kept secret by the government until 1990. When Russian president

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

signed a 1992 decree opening the area, Western scientists were able to gain access. The sediment of the lake bed is estimated to be composed almost entirely of high level radioactive waste deposits to a depth of roughly 11 feet (3.4 m). In 1994, a report revealed that 5 million cubic meters of polluted water had migrated from Lake Karachay, and was spreading to the south and north at 80 meters per year, "threatening to enter water intakes and rivers". The authors acknowledged that "theoretical hazards developed into actual events". In November 1994, officials from the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy stated that Soviet officials initiated a process following the 1957

Kyshtym disaster The Kyshtym disaster, sometimes referred to as the Mayak disaster or Ozyorsk disaster in newer sources, was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nu ...

resulting in the transfer of 3 billion curies of high level nuclear waste into deep wells at three other sites. After a drought caused water levels to drop, revealing contaminated silt, which was then wind blown, further polluting surrounding areas, it was decided to completely fill in the lake. As of December 2016, the lake's status is completely infilled, using special concrete blocks, rock, and dirt. It had been completely backfilled in November 2015, then monitored before placing the final layer of rock and dirt. Monitoring data showed "clear reduction of the deposition of radionuclides on the surface" after 10 months. A decades-long monitoring program for underground water was expected to be implemented shortly after. The

Techa River The Techa is an eastward river on the eastern flank of the southern Ural Mountains noted for its nuclear contamination. It is long, and its basin covers . It begins by the once-secret nuclear processing town of Ozyorsk about northwest of Chely ...

, which provides water to nearby areas, was contaminated, and about 65% of local residents fell ill with radiation sickness. Doctors called it the "special disease" because they were not allowed to note radiation in their diagnoses as long as the facility was secret. In the village of , it was found that 65% of residents were suffering from chronic radiation sickness. Workers at the plutonium plant were also affected.

Causes

The pollution of Lake Karachay is connected to the disposal of nuclear materials from

. Among workers,

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

mortality remains an issue. By one estimate, the river contains 120 million curies of radioactive waste.

Prevalence of pollution

Nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

, either from civilian or military nuclear projects, remains a serious threat to the environment of Russia. Reports suggest that there are few or no road signs warning about the polluted areas surrounding Lake Karachay."The Burning Lake: A Volk Thriller", by Brent Ghelfi, p. 101 Some parts of the lake are extremely radioactive () and one could receive a lethal dose of radiation in 30 minutes ().

References

External links

History

Causes

Prevalence of pollution

See also

References

External links