Uchquduq (sometimes spelled as Uchkuduk, uz, Üçquduq; russian: Учкуду́к) is a city in the north of Navoiy Region, Uzbekistan. It is the seat of Uchquduq District. The city's name means "three draw-wells" in Uzbek. It is located at , at an altitude of 193 meters in the middle of the

Kyzyl Kum The Kyzylkum Desert ( uz, Qizilqum, Қизилқум, قىزىلقۇم; kk, Қызылқұм, Qyzylqūm, قىزىلقۇم) is the 15th largest desert in the world. Its name means ''Red Sand'' in Turkic languages. It is located in Central Asia, i ...

Desert. Its population is 26,800 (2016).

History

Uchkuduk was founded in 1958, after a small prospecting party found deposits of uranium ore. In the late 1960s, the development of open pit and underground mining led to the rapid growth of the settlement, with workers, engineers and technicians from all over the Soviet Union. It was elevated to city status in 1978. Until 1979, Uchkuduk had the status of a " closed secret city," as it supplied much of the raw material for

nuclear weapons 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 bomb ...

in the Soviet military arsenal. The mining operations are now under the control of the

Navoi Mining and Metallurgy Combinat NMMC ( en, State-Owned Enterprise Navoi Mining & Metallurgy Combine, russian: Государственное предприятие «Навоийский горно-металлургический комбинат») is one of the largest Uzb ...

(NMMC), which continues to mine and process uranium using in-situ leach processes. The company also produces gold by the same process.

Aeroflot Flight 7425 Aeroflot Flight 5143 was a domestic scheduled Karshi–Ufa–Leningrad passenger flight that crashed near Uchkuduk, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, on 10 July 1985. The crash killed all 200 occupants (148 adults, including 9 crewmembers, and 52 childr ...

crashed near Uchkuduk on July 10, 1985. The Uzbek group Yalla made a Soviet-wide hit named after the city.

References

Populated places in Navoiy Region Cities in Uzbekistan Uranium mines in the Soviet Union Mining in Uzbekistan Nuclear weapons program of the Soviet Union Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Closed cities {{Uzbekistan-geo-stub