Publication Laka-library:
Mayak: the most radioactive polluted place on earth
| Author | Bellona |
| Date | May 1992 |
| Classification | 2.34.8.80/01 (RUSSIA - MAYAK/CHELYABINSK (incl. Disaster Kyshtym Urals 1957)) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
PREFACE Mayak is the official name on an area covering 90 km2, 60 km northwest of the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia, where the former Soviet Union has produced and developed nuclear weapons since the second world war. The area has been one of the most closely guarded places on earth and is still fenced off with double barbed wire fencing, 2 - 3 meters high. For the local population the mere uttering of the word "Mayak" might result in reprisals up until two years ago. The most important installations in Mayak have been 6 military production reactors and a radiochemical separation plant. The installations were up until a few years ago used exclusively for the production of plutonium and tritium aimed at production of nuclear weapons. Mayak has been - and still is - one of the most important sites for this kind of production in Russia. These activities have, apart from contributing to the nuclear arms race, resulted in enormous releases of radioactive materials. The releases started with the beginning of the activities in the late 1940's and have not only been caused by accidents, but also by deliberate dumping of highly radioactive waste in the river Techa and the lake Karachay. It is difficult to describe this 43 year long catastrophe, but the following statement made by Alexander Penyagin former chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet's Subcommittee on Nuclear Safety can serve as an preliminary illustration: "If you multiply Chernobyl by a hundred times, you have a picture of what has happened in Chelyabinsk ." (Hertsgaard 1992). What makes the events in and around Mayak so very serious is the fact that the population which has been exposed to this poisoning has been denied information about the dangers they were exposed to. The health authorities in Chelyabinsk have, until two years ago, been forced to conceal what they knew, namely that tens of thousands of human beings died and/or went through grave sufferings because of radioactive pollution. Now when there is a little more openness about the Mayak complex, the challenge is to make the best out of the existing situation.
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