The consequences of radiation after Chernobyl are unexpected. Map of radiation contamination of Russia

Although the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima worries brought the radiation threat back into the public consciousness, many people still do not realize that radioactive contamination is a danger around the world. Radionuclides are among the six most dangerous toxic substances listed in a report published in 2010 by the Blacksmith Institute, a non-governmental organization dedicated to environmental pollution. The location of some of the most radioactive places on the planet may surprise you - as well as the many people living under the threat of the possible effects of radiation on themselves and their children.

Hanford, USA 10th place

The Hanford complex in Washington State was part of the US project to develop the first atomic bomb, fabricating plutonium for it and the Fat Man used in Nagasaki. During the Cold War, the complex ramped up production, providing plutonium for most of America's 60,000 nuclear weapons. Despite decommissioning, it still contains two-thirds of the country's high-level radioactive waste - about 53 million gallons (200 thousand cubic meters; hereinafter - approx. mixednews) liquid, 25 million cubic meters. feet (700 thousand cubic meters) solid and 200 sq. m. miles (518 sq. km) of groundwater contaminated with radiation, making it the most polluted area in the US. The destruction of the natural environment in this area makes one realize that the threat of radiation is not something that will come with a missile attack, but something that can lurk in the very heart of your own country.

Mediterranean Sea - 9th place

For years, there have been rumors that the 'Ndrangheta syndicate of the Italian mafia used the sea as a convenient place to dump hazardous waste, including radioactive, cashing in on the provision of related services. According to the assumptions of the Italian non-governmental organization Legambiente, since 1994, about 40 ships loaded with toxic and radioactive waste have disappeared in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. If true, these claims paint a disturbing picture of contamination of the Mediterranean basin with unspecified amounts of nuclear material, the extent of the true threat of which will become clear when hundreds of barrels are compromised by wear and tear or some other process. Behind the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea, an unfolding ecological disaster may well be hiding.

Coast of Somalia 8th place

Since we are talking about this sinister business, the Italian mafia just mentioned was not limited to its own region. There are also allegations that the Somali soils and waters, left without state protection, were used for the burial and flooding of nuclear materials and poisonous metals, including 600 barrels of toxic and radioactive waste, as well as waste from medical institutions. Indeed, UN Environment officials believe that rusting barrels of waste washed up on the Somali coast during the 2004 tsunami were dumped into the sea as early as the 1990s. The country is already ravaged by anarchy, and the impact of the waste on its impoverished population could be as devastating (if not worse) than anything it has experienced before.

Mayak, Russia— 7th place

For decades, the Mayak production complex in northeastern Russia has included a plant for the production of nuclear materials, and in 1957 became the site of one of the world's worst nuclear incidents. As a result of the explosion, which resulted in the release of up to one hundred tons of radioactive waste, a vast territory was contaminated. The fact of the explosion was kept under cover of secrecy until the eighties. Since the 1950s, the plant's waste has been dumped in the surrounding area, as well as in Lake Karachay. This has led to the contamination of the water supply system that provides the daily needs of thousands of people. Experts believe that Karachay may be the most radioactive place in the world, and more than 400,000 people have been exposed to the plant's radiation as a result of various serious accidents - including fires and deadly dust storms. The natural beauty of Lake Karachay deceptively hides pollutants that create a level of radiation in the places where they enter the waters of the lake, sufficient for a person to receive a lethal dose of radiation within an hour.

Sellafield, UK— 6th place

Located on the west coast of England, Sellafield was originally an atomic bomb factory, but has since moved into the realm of commerce. Since the start of its operation, hundreds of emergency situations have occurred on it, and two-thirds of its buildings themselves are now considered as radioactive waste. The facility dumps about 8 million liters of radioactive waste into the sea every day, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world. England is famous for its green fields and hilly landscapes, despite the fact that in the heart of this industrialized country, a toxic, high-accident facility is well established, spewing dangerous substances into the oceans.

Siberian Chemical Combine, Russia— 5th place

Mayak is not the only dirty place in Russia; There is a chemical industry facility in Siberia that contains more than forty years of nuclear waste. Liquids are stored in open pools, and poorly maintained tanks hold over 125,000 tons of solid materials, while underground storage is capable of leaking into groundwater. Winds and rains spread the pollution over the surrounding area and its wildlife. And many minor accidents have led to the loss of plutonium and the explosive spread of radiation. The snow-covered landscape may look pristine and clean, but the facts make clear the true degree of pollution that can be found here.

Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan- 4th place

Once the site of nuclear weapons testing, the area is now part of modern-day Kazakhstan. The site was allocated for the needs of the Soviet atomic bomb project due to its "uninhabited" - despite the fact that 700 thousand people lived in the area. The facility was located where the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb and holds the record as the site with the highest concentration of nuclear explosions in the world: 456 tests over 40 years from 1949 to 1989. Although the site's tests - and its exposure to radiation - were kept secret by the Soviets until its closure in 1991, the radiation is estimated to have affected the health of 200,000 people. The desire to destroy the peoples on the other side of the border led to the specter of nuclear contamination, which hung over the heads of those who at one time were citizens of the USSR.

Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan- 3rd place

In Mailuu-Suu, considered one of the ten most polluted cities on Earth according to a 2006 Blacksmith Institute report, radiation does not come from atomic bombs or power plants, but from the extraction of materials needed in their associated technological processes. In this area, uranium mining and processing facilities were located, which are now abandoned along with 36 dumps of uranium waste - more than 1.96 million cubic meters. This region is also characterized by seismic activity, and any disturbance of the containment of substances can lead to their contact with the environment or, if they enter rivers, pollute the water used by hundreds of thousands of people. These people may never worry about the threat of a nuclear strike at all, but they still have good reason to live in fear of radioactive fallout whenever the earth shakes.

Chernobyl, Ukraine- 2nd place

The site of one of the worst and most infamous nuclear accidents, Chernobyl, is still heavily polluted despite the fact that a small number of people are now allowed in the zone for a limited time. The infamous incident exposed 6 million people to the radiation, and estimates of the number of deaths that will eventually occur due to the Chernobyl accident range from 4,000 to 93,000. Radiation emissions were a hundred times greater than those that occurred during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Belarus absorbed 70 percent of the radiation, and its citizens faced a never-before-seen amount of cancer. Even today, the word "Chernobyl" conjures up horrifying images of human suffering.

Fukushima, Japan- 1st place

The 2011 earthquake and tsunami was a tragedy that took lives and homes, but the longest-term danger may be the impact from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl caused fuel meltdowns in three of the six reactors, as well as such radiation leaks into the surrounding areas and into the sea that radioactive substances were detected at a distance of up to two hundred miles from the plant. Until the accident and its consequences are fully revealed, the true extent of environmental damage remains unknown. The world may still feel the effects of this catastrophe for generations to come.

"God! Why is this stinking, creeping fog here in my forest! Why? After all, we are 145 kilometers from Chernobyl directly! Dear God, why do we suffer so much?! After all, in my region, my Polissya, there are places rich in berries and mushrooms, the famous Polissya cranberries. And suddenly - everything is poisoned, ”- my friend Lyuda wrote in an essay 9 years after the biggest technological disaster of the 20th century - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Holidays in the area with the right to resettlement

We have known Lyuda since childhood, which I spent with my grandmother, and by the fate of fate, this beautiful picturesque corner is the village of Glushkovichi, Gomel Region - became a zone with the right to resettlement, where the land is contaminated with caesium-137 from 5 to 15 Curie per square kilometer, with an allowable rate of up to 1 Curie. People got the right, but they didn’t want to leave their native places: after all, radiation is a poison without color and smell, but you shudder from its consequences ...

I heard more about Chernobyl than all my Grodno peers. In kindergarten, while measuring the level of radiation, she was a leader. But how could you give up an unforgettable childhood: your favorite boiled corn, which your grandmother picked at 6 in the morning to have time to cook for breakfast, bike rides to the lake or river with friends, Indian cinema in the club, playing rubber bands and Cossack robbers. And what are the stars in Glushkovichi - looks like you can get your hands on it! Only sometimes, picking berries in the forest, - you should have seen how many blueberries are in Polissya! - met a terrifying inscription: “Forbidden zone! Grazing, picking berries, mushrooms is strictly prohibited! Elevated radioactive zone!

I realized that radiation is evil a few years after the accident. Chernobyl, like lightning, “hit” my family: my cousin Alena, who, along with her mother, father, three sisters and brother, had to leave her native Novoselki, Khoinitsky district (50 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant) and move to Minsk in the status of “victim of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, they discovered thyroid cancer ... Fortunately, the operation was successful and the disease receded, but the scar on the neck always reminds me of the terrible consequences of the disaster.

3 million people died because of the accident?

The explosion of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the night of April 26, 1986 for millions of people divided life into before and after the Catastrophe. The radioactive cloud circled the Earth at least twice before dissolving for centuries, leaving traces all over the Northern Hemisphere.

- Belarus is the most affected country, but 50% of dangerous radionuclides fell out of its borders. 400 million people received significant exposure, 5 million, of which 800 thousand children, live where they should not. But the World Health Organization (WHO) and the IAEA are afraid to speak the truth. In 1986, a lot was unclear: they made reckless promises and said that everything would not be so terrible. Now we can say: scary, unacceptably scary, and the end of this horror story is not visible: the consequences will expand even more, and I don’t know what will come of it. We are entering the era of the children of Chernobyl: 7 generations of people will suffer from the consequences of the disaster, - told the President of the Center for Environmental Policy of Russia, Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexey Yablokov at an international conference in Minsk.

According to the scientist, who a month ago published the 6th edition of the book "Chernobyl: the consequences of the Catastrophe for man and nature", the real number of victims is hidden from the public.

- The official report of the IAEA and WHO says that due to the Chernobyl accident, an additional 9,000 people died of cancer, our figures are 50,000 deaths. Research scientists have shown that the total additional mortality worldwide in the 20 years after Chernobyl amounted to one million people. After 1986, the number of miscarriages increased, and this is another two million unborn - that's the scale of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster! Therefore, they are silent about this: there is an atomic lobby, which does not benefit from the consequences being investigated and presented, - Alexei Yablokov says

Grodno region is almost not polluted

Compared to Glushkovichi, Grodno seemed like a very safe place in Belarus. Here, no one talked about radiation, and the children did not go to Canada, Germany and even Japan for treatment, like the victims of Chernobyl. The Grodno region is indeed considered one of the most unpolluted regions of Belarus.

In 1986, 23% of the territory of Belarus was contaminated with cesium-137 above 1 Curie per square kilometer. In the Grodno region, the most "volatile" radionuclide with an unacceptable density of pollution "donkey" in three districts: Novogrudok, Ivyevsky and Dyatlovsky.

- In the region, 84 settlements were registered with periodic radiation monitoring, where the density of cesium-137 contamination is from 1 to 5 Curie per square kilometer, including in the Novogrudok district - 12, Ivyevsky - 50, Dyatlovsky - 22, - says the head of the radiation hygiene department of the Grodno Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health Alexander Razmakhnin.

5.2% of the forest lands of the Grodno region are located in the zone of radioactive contamination. The distribution of cesium-137 isotopes had a patchy character, which is clearly seen on the maps.

What to expect from radionuclides

Meanwhile, the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster seems to bring good news - the half-life of "volatile" cesium has ended, which means that the territories should be cleaner, but ...

- The complete decay of caesium-137 lasts 300 years. From a physical point of view, now this dose-forming radionuclide has become two times less. It seems like the danger should decrease, but this did not happen. Why? There are fewer radionuclides, they sink into the soil, where they are “grabbed and pulled out” by plant roots. And outside, people who have lost their fear gather mushrooms, berries, and graze cows in these territories. It turns out a paradoxical thing: there is less cesium, and the internal exposure of the inhabitants who eat these products is greater. Chernobyl has not gone away, it is next to us and sometimes becomes angrier than it was! There are still miracles ahead: there is still plutonium, which is now “resting” in the exclusion zone (half-life is 24,000 years), but when it decays, it turns into americium-241, and this is the same strong and “mobile” radiation emitter. Areas that were contaminated with plutonium in 1986 will be 4 times larger by 2056 because plutonium will turn into americium, - He speaks Alexey Yablokov.

The consequences of the "iodine" strike

"Iodine strike", which took place from May to July 1896 in Belarus, caused an increase in thyroid cancer (TC). The disease is officially recognized as the main medical consequence of the Chernobyl disaster. More than 50% of all cases of thyroid cancer in the group of 0-18 years old in the 20 years after the accident occurred in children who were under 5 years old at the time of the "iodine shock". According to official figures, the number of people with cancer (who were under 18 at the time of the disaster) increased 200-fold between 1989 and 2005.

In addition, according to the data of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus before the disaster (1985), 90% of children were classified as "practically healthy". By 2000, the number of such children was less than 20%, and in the heavily polluted territory of the Gomel region - 10%.

According to official statistics, the number of disabled children increased by 4.7 times between 1990 and 2002.

Numbers

According to the Department for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster, 1,142,000 Belarusians, including 260,000 children, live in the zone of radioactive contamination with cesium-137 from 1 to 15 Curie per square kilometer. 1800 people remain to live in areas with subsequent resettlement, with levels of cesium pollution from 15 to 40 Ci/km2. Residents themselves did not want to move to safer areas.

How many years have passed since the tragedy. The very course of the accident, its causes and consequences are already completely determined and known to everyone. As far as I know, there is not even any kind of double interpretation, except in small things. Yes, you know everything. Let me tell you better some seemingly ordinary moments, but perhaps you have not thought about them.

Myth one: the remoteness of Chernobyl from big cities.

In fact, in the case of the Chernobyl disaster, only an accident did not lead to the evacuation of Kyiv, for example. Chernobyl is located 14 km from the nuclear power plant, and Kyiv is only 151 km from Chernobyl (according to other sources, 131 km) by road. And in a straight line, which is preferable for a radiation cloud and 100 km will not be - 93.912 km. And Wikipedia generally gives the following data - the distance to Kyiv is physical - 83 km, by road - 115 km.

By the way, here is the complete map for the sake of completeness.

Clickable 2000 px

AT the first days of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the battle with radiation was also fought on the outskirts of Kyiv. The threat of infection came not only from the Chernobyl wind, but also from the wheels of vehicles moving from Pripyat to the capital. The problem of purification of radioactive water formed after the decontamination of cars was solved by scientists from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

AT In April-May 1986, eight points of radioactive control of vehicles were organized around the capital. Cars heading for Kyiv were simply poured with hoses. And all the water went into the soil. As a fire order, tanks were built to collect used radioactive water. Literally in a matter of days they were filled to the brim. The radioactive shield of the capital could turn into its nuclear sword.

And only then the leadership of Kyiv and the headquarters of civil defense agreed to consider the proposal of polytechnic chemists to purify polluted water. Moreover, there have already been developments in this regard. Long before the accident, a laboratory for the development of reagents for wastewater treatment was created at KPI, led by Professor Alexander Petrovich Shutko.

P The technology proposed by Shutko's group for decontaminating water from radionuclides did not require the construction of complex treatment facilities. Decontamination was carried out directly in the storage tanks. Within two hours after water treatment with special coagulants, radioactive substances settled at the bottom, and the purified water met the maximum permissible standards. After that, only radioactive fallout was buried in the 30-kilometer zone. Can you imagine if the problem of water purification had not been solved? Then a lot of eternal burial grounds with radioactive water would be built around Kyiv!

To Unfortunately Professor A.P. Shutko. left us in his incomplete 57 years, not having lived only 20 days before the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. And the chemical scientists who worked side by side with him in the Chernobyl zone for their selfless work managed to get the “title of liquidators”, free travel in transport and a bunch of diseases associated with radioactive exposure. Among them is Anatoly Krysenko, Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial Ecology of the National Polytechnic University. It was to him that Professor Shutko was the first to suggest testing reagents for the purification of radioactive water. Together with him in Shutko's group worked Associate Professor of KPI Vitaly Basov and Associate Professor of the Institute of Civil Air Fleet Lev Malakhov.

Why is the accident Chernobyl, and the dead city is PRIPYAT?

There are several evacuated settlements on the territory of the exclusion zone:
Pripyat
Chernobyl
Novoshepelichi
Polisske
Vilcha
Severovka
Yanov
Kopachi
Chernobyl-2

Visual distance between Pripyat and Chernobyl

Why is only Pripyat so famous? This is simply the largest city in the exclusion zone and the closest to it - according to the last census conducted before the evacuation (in November 1985), the population was 47 thousand 500 people, more than 25 nationalities. For example, only 12 thousand people lived in Chernobyl itself before the accident.

By the way, after the accident, Chernobyl was not abandoned and completely evacuated like Pripyat.

People live in the city. These are the Ministry of Emergency Situations, policemen, cooks, janitors, plumbers. There are about 1500 of them. The streets are mostly men. In camouflage. This is the local fashion. Some apartment buildings are inhabited, but they do not live there permanently: the curtains have faded, the paint on the windows has peeled off, the vents are closed.

People here temporarily stop, work on a rotational basis, live in hostels. A couple of thousand more people work at the nuclear power plant, they mostly live in Slavutych and commute to work by train.

Most of them work in the zone on a rotational basis, 15 days here, 15 - "in the wild". Locals say that the average salary in Chernobyl is only 1,700 UAH, but this is very average, some have more. True, there is nothing special to spend money on here: you do not need to pay for utilities, housing, food (everyone is fed three times a day for free, and not bad). There is one store, but there is little choice. There are no beer stalls or any entertainment at the restricted facility. By the way, Chernobyl is also a return to the past. In the center of the city stands Lenin in full growth, a monument to the Komsomol, all the names of the streets are from that era. In the city, the background is about 30-50 micro-roentgens - the maximum allowable for a person.

And now let's turn to the materials of the blogger vit_au_lit :

Myth two: non-attendance.

Many probably think that only some kind of radiation seekers, stalkers, etc. go to the accident zone, and normal people will not approach this zone closer than 30 km. How else to fit!

The first checkpoint on the road to the station is zone III: a 30-kilometer perimeter around the nuclear power plant. At the entrance to the checkpoint, such a line of cars lined up that I could not even imagine: despite the fact that the cars were passed through the control in 3 rows, we stood for about an hour, waiting for our turn.

The reason for this is the active visits by former residents of Chernobyl and Pripyat from April 26 to the May holidays. All of them go either to their former places of residence, or to cemeteries, or “to graves,” as they say here.

Myth three: closeness.

Were you sure that all the entrances to the nuclear power plant are carefully guarded, and no one, except for the service personnel, is allowed in there, and you can only get inside the zone by letting the guards on your paw? Nothing like this. Of course, you can’t just pass through the checkpoint, but the millionaires only write out a pass for each car, indicating the number of passengers, and go yourself, get irradiated.

They say that earlier they also asked for passports. By the way, children under 18 are not allowed into the zone.

The road to Chernobyl is surrounded on both sides by a wall of trees, but if you look closely, you can see the abandoned half-ruins of private houses among the rough vegetation. Nobody will come back to them.

Myth four: uninhabited.

Chernobyl, located between the 30- and 10-kilometer perimeters around the nuclear power plant, is quite habitable. The staff of the station and the districts, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and those who returned to their original places live in it. The city has shops, bars, and some other benefits of civilization, but no children.

To enter the 10 km perimeter, it is enough to show the pass issued at the first checkpoint. Another 15 minutes by car, and we drive up to the nuclear power plant.

It's time to get a dosimeter, which madam carefully provided me with, having begged this device from her grandfather, who was obsessed with such lotions. Before leaving vit_au_lit I measured the readings in the courtyard of my house: 14 microR/h - typical indicators for an uncontaminated environment.
We put the dosimeter on the grass, and while we are taking a couple of shots against the background of a flower bed, the device quietly calculates for itself. What did he intend there?

Heh, 63 microR/hour - 4.5 times more than the average city norm ... after that we get advice from our guides: to walk only on a concrete road, because. the slabs are more or less cleaned, but do not climb into the grass.

Myth five: the impregnability of nuclear power plants.

For some reason, it always seemed to me that the nuclear power plant itself was surrounded by some kilometer perimeter of barbed wire, so that, God forbid, some adventurer would not come closer to the station than a few hundred meters and would not receive a dose of radiation.

The road leads us straight to the central entrance, where from time to time regular buses drive up, transporting the workers of the station - people continue to work at the nuclear power plant to this day. According to our guides - several thousand people, although this figure seemed to me too high, because all the reactors had long been stopped. Behind the shop one can see the pipe of the destroyed 4th reactor.

The square in front of the central administrative building was rebuilt into one large memorial to those who died during the liquidation of the accident.

The names of those who died in the first hours after the explosion are carved on the marble slabs.

Pripyat: the same dead city. Its construction began simultaneously with the construction of the nuclear power plant, and it was intended for plant workers and their families. It is located some 2 kilometers from the station, so he got the most.

There is a stele at the entrance to the city. In this part of the road, the background radiation is the most dangerous:

257 μR/hour, which is almost 18 times higher than the average city rate. In other words, the dose of radiation that we receive in 18 hours in the city, here we will receive in an hour.

A few more minutes, and we reach the Pripyat checkpoint. The road goes not far from the railway line: in the old days, the most ordinary passenger trains ran along it, for example, Moscow-Khmelnitsky. Passengers who traveled this route on April 26, 1986 were then issued a Chernobyl certificate.

They only let us into the city on foot, we never managed to get permission to travel, although the escorts had certificates.

Speaking of the myth of non-attendance. Here is a photo taken from the roof of one of the skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city, near the checkpoint: cars and buses parked along the road leading to Pripyat are visible among the trees.

And this is what the road looked like before the accident, in the days of the “living” city.

The previous photo was taken from the roof of the rightmost of the 3 nineteenths in the foreground.

Myth six: the Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not work after the accident.

On May 22, 1986, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 583 set the deadline for commissioning power units No. 1 and 2 of the Chernobyl NPP - October 1986. In the premises of the power units of the first stage, decontamination was carried out; on July 15, 1986, its first stage was completed.

In August, at the second stage of the Chernobyl NPP, the communications common to the 3rd and 4th units were cut, and a concrete dividing wall was erected in the engine room.

After the works on the modernization of the plant systems, provided for by the measures approved by the USSR Ministry of Energy on June 27, 1986 and aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors, on September 18, permission was received to start the physical start-up of the reactor of the first power unit. On October 1, 1986, the first power unit was launched and at 16:47 it was connected to the grid. On November 5, power unit No. 2 was launched.

On November 24, 1987, the physical start-up of the reactor of the third power unit began, the power start-up took place on December 4. On December 31, 1987, by the decision of the Government Commission No. 473, the act of acceptance into operation of the 3rd power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was approved after repair and restoration work.

The third stage of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, unfinished 5 and 6 power units, 2008. The construction of the 5th and 6th blocks was stopped at a high degree of readiness of the facilities.

However, as you remember, there were many complaints from foreign countries about the operating Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 22, 1997, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 1, stopped on November 30, 1996.

By the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 15, 1999, it was recognized as expedient to carry out early decommissioning power unit No. 2, stopped after the accident in 1991.

From December 5, 2000, the reactor power was gradually reduced in preparation for shutdown. On December 14, the reactor operated at 5% power for the shutdown ceremony and December 15, 2000 at 13:17 By order of the President of Ukraine, during the broadcast of the teleconference Chernobyl NPP - National Palace "Ukraine", by turning the emergency protection key of the fifth level (AZ-5), the reactor of power unit No. 3 of the Chernobyl NPP was stopped forever, and the station stopped generating electricity.

Let's honor the memory of the heroes-liquidators who saved other people without sparing their lives.

Knowledge is power. Places not worth living near. And ideally - not even to appear nearby. :)

Nuclear power plants.

Balakovo (Balakovo, Saratov region).
Beloyarskaya (Beloyarsky, Yekaterinburg region).
Bilibino ATES (Bilibino, Magadan region).
Kalininskaya (Udomlya, Tver region).
Kola (Polyarnye Zori, Murmansk region).
Leningrad (Sosnovy Bor, St. Petersburg region).
Smolensk (Desnogorsk, Smolensk region).
Kursk (Kurchatov, Kursk region).
Novovoronezhskaya (Novovoronezhsk, Voronezh region).

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org
unknown source

Special regime cities of the nuclear weapons complex.

Arzamas-16 (now the Kremlin, Nizhny Novgorod region). All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics. Development and design of nuclear charges. Experimental plant "Communist". Electromechanical plant "Avangard" (serial production).
Zlatoust-36 (Chelyabinsk region). Serial production of nuclear warheads (?) and ballistic missiles for submarines (SLBMs).
Krasnoyarsk-26 (now Zheleznogorsk). Underground mining and chemical plant. Processing of irradiated fuel from nuclear power plants, production of weapons-grade plutonium. Three nuclear reactors.
Krasnoyarsk-45. Electromechanical plant. Uranium enrichment (?). Serial production of ballistic missiles for submarines (SLBMs). Creation of spacecraft, mainly satellites for military, reconnaissance purposes.
Sverdlovsk-44. Serial assembly of nuclear weapons.
Sverdlovsk-45. Serial assembly of nuclear weapons.
Tomsk-7 (now Seversk). Siberian Chemical Plant. Enrichment of uranium, production of weapons-grade plutonium.
Chelyabinsk-65 (now Ozersk). Software "Mayak". Reprocessing of irradiated fuel from nuclear power plants and ship nuclear power plants, production of weapons-grade plutonium.
Chelyabinsk-70 (now Snezhinsk). VNII of technical physics. Development and design of nuclear charges.

Test site for nuclear weapons.

Northern (1954-1992). Since February 27, 1992 - the Central training ground of the Russian Federation.

Research and educational nuclear centers and institutions with research nuclear reactors.

Sosnovy Bor (St. Petersburg region). Naval Training Center.
Dubna (Moscow region). Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
Obninsk (Kaluga region). NPO "Typhoon". Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE). Installations "Topaz-1", "Topaz-2". Naval Training Center.
Moscow. Institute of Atomic Energy. I. V. Kurchatova (thermonuclear complex ANGARA-5). Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI). Research production association "Aileron". Research and production association "Energy". Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics.
Protvino (Moscow region). Institute of High Energy Physics. Accelerator of elementary particles.
Sverdlovsk branch of the Research and Design Institute of Experimental Technologies. (40 km from Yekaterinburg).
Novosibirsk. Academgorodok of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Troitsk (Moscow region). Institute for Thermonuclear Research (installations "Tokomak").
Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region). Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors. V.I. Lenin.
Nizhny Novgorod. Design Bureau of Nuclear Reactors.
St. Petersburg. Research and production association "Electrophysics". Radium Institute. V. G. Khlopina. Research and Design Institute of Energy Technology. Research Institute of Radiation Hygiene of the Ministry of Health of Russia.
Norilsk. Experimental nuclear reactor.
Podolsk Scientific Research Production Association "Luch".

Deposits of uranium, enterprises for its extraction and primary processing.

Lermontov (Stavropol Territory). Uranium-molybdenum inclusions of volcanic rocks. Software "Diamond". Extraction and enrichment of ore.
Pervomaisky (Chita region). Zabaikalsky Mining and Processing Plant.
Vikhorevka (Irkutsk region). Extraction (?) of uranium and thorium.
Aldan (Yakutia). Mining of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements.
Slyudyanka (Irkutsk region). Deposit of uranium-containing and rare earth elements.
Krasnokamensk (Chita region). Uranium mine.
Borsk (Chita region). A depleted (?) uranium mine - the so-called "gorge of death", where ore was mined by prisoners of Stalin's legers.
Lovozero (Murmansk region). Uranium and thorium minerals.
Lake Onega area. Uranium and vanadium minerals.
Vishnevogorsk, Novogorny (Central Ural). uranium mineralization.

uranium metallurgy.

Elektrostal (Moscow region). Software "Machine-building plant".
Novosibirsk. PO "Plant of chemical concentrates".
Glazov (Udmurtia). PO "Chepetsky Mechanical Plant".

Enterprises for the production of nuclear fuel, highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.

Chelyabinsk-65 (Chelyabinsk region). Software "Mayak".
Tomsk-7 (Tomsk region). Siberian chemical plant.
Krasnoyarsk-26 (Krasnoyarsk Territory). Mining and chemical plant.
Yekaterinburg. Ural Electrochemical Plant.
Kirovo-Chepetsk (Kirov region). Chemical plant them. B. P. Konstantinova.
Angarsk (Irkutsk region). Chemical electrolysis plant.

Shipbuilding and ship repair plants and nuclear fleet bases.

St. Petersburg. Leningrad Admiralty Association. Software "Baltic Plant".
Severodvinsk. Production Association "Sevmashpredpriyatie", Production Association "Sever".
Nizhny Novgorod. Software "Krasnoe Sormovo".
Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Shipyard "Leninsky Komsomol".
Big Stone (Primorsky Territory). Shipyard "Zvezda".
Murmansk. Technical base of PTO "Atomflot", shipyard "Nerpa"

Bases of nuclear submarines (Nuclear submarines) of the Northern Fleet.

Zapadnaya Litsa (Nerpichya Bay).
Gadzhiyevo.
Polar.
Vidyaevo.
Yokanga.
Gremikha.

Bases of nuclear submarines of the Pacific Fleet.

Fishing.
Vladivostok (Gulf of Vladimir and Pavlovsky Bay),
Soviet harbor.
Nakhodka.
Magadan.
Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky.
Korsakov.

Storage areas for ballistic missiles for submarines.

Revda (Murmansk region).
Nenoksa (Arkhangelsk region).

Points of equipping missiles with nuclear warheads and loading into submarines.

Severodvinsk.
Guba Okolnaya (Kola Bay).

Places of temporary storage of irradiated nuclear fuel and enterprises for its processing
NPP industrial sites.

Murmansk. Lighter "Lepse", mother ship "Imandra" PTO "Atom-flot".
Polar. Technical base of the Northern Fleet.
Yokanga. Technical base of the Northern Fleet.
Pavlovsky bay. Technical base of the Pacific Fleet.
Chelyabinsk-65. Software "Mayak".
Krasnoyarsk-26. Mining and chemical plant.

Industrial accumulators and regional storages (burial grounds) of radioactive and atomic waste.

NPP industrial sites.
Krasnoyarsk-26. Mining and chemical plant, RT-2.
Chelyabinsk-65. Software "Mayak".
Tomsk-7. Siberian chemical plant.
Severodvinsk (Arkhangelsk region). The industrial site of the Zvyozdochka shipyard of the Sever Production Association.
Big Stone (Primorsky Territory). Industrial site of the Zvezda shipyard.
Zapadnaya Litsa (Andreeva Bay). Technical base of the Northern Fleet.
Gremikha. Technical base of the Northern Fleet.
Shkotovo-22 (Chazhma Bay). Ship repair and technical base of the Pacific Fleet.
Fishing. Technical base of the Pacific Fleet.

Places of sludge and disposal of decommissioned ships of the navy and civilian ships with nuclear power plants.

Polyarny, base of the Northern Fleet.
Gremikha, base of the Northern Fleet.
Yokanga, base of the Northern Fleet.
Zapadnaya Litsa (Andreeva Bay), base of the Northern Fleet.
Severodvinsk, industrial water area of ​​the production association "Sever".
Murmansk, Atomflot technical base.
Bolshoy Kamen, water area of ​​the Zvezda shipyard.
Shkotovo-22 (Chazhma Bay), technical base of the Pacific Fleet.
Sovetskaya Gavan, the water area of ​​the military-technical base.
Rybachy, base of the Pacific Fleet.
Vladivostok (Pavlovsky Bay, Vladimir Bay), bases of the Pacific Fleet.

Undeclared areas of liquid RW discharge and solid RW flooding.

Discharge sites for liquid radioactive waste in the Barents Sea.
Areas of inundation of solid radioactive waste in shallow bays of the Kara side of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and in the area of ​​the Novaya Zemlya deep-water basin.
Point of unauthorized flooding of the Nickel lighter with solid radioactive waste.
Guba Chernaya of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The place where the pilot ship "Kit" was laid up, on which experiments were carried out with chemical warfare agents.

contaminated areas.

A 30-kilometer sanitary zone and areas contaminated with radionuclides as a result of the catastrophe on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The East Ural radioactive trace formed as a result of the explosion on September 29, 1957 of a container with high-level waste at an enterprise in Kyshtym (Chelyabinsk-65).
Radioactive contamination of the Techa-Iset-Tobol-Irtysh-Ob river basin as a result of long-term discharge of radiochemical production waste at the facilities of the nuclear (weapons and energy) complex in Kyshtym and the spread of radioisotopes from open radioactive waste storage facilities due to wind erosion.
Radioactive contamination of the Yenisei and individual sections of the floodplain as a result of the industrial operation of two once-through water reactors of a mining and chemical plant and the operation of a radioactive waste storage facility in Krasnoyarsk-26.
Radioactive contamination of the territory in the sanitary protection zone of the Siberian Chemical Combine (Tomsk-7) and beyond.
Officially recognized sanitary zones at the sites of the first nuclear explosions on land, under water and in the atmosphere at the nuclear weapons test sites on Novaya Zemlya.
Totsky district of the Orenburg region. Location of military exercises on the resistance of personnel and military equipment to the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on September 14, 1954 in the atmosphere.
Radioactive release as a result of an unauthorized launch of a nuclear submarine reactor, accompanied by a fire, at the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk (Arkhangelsk region) on February 12, 1965.
Radioactive release as a result of an unauthorized start-up of a nuclear submarine reactor, accompanied by a fire, at the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard in Nizhny Novgorod in 1970.
Local radioactive contamination of the water area and adjacent areas as a result of unauthorized start-up and thermal explosion of the nuclear submarine reactor during its reloading at the shipyard of the Navy in Shkotovo-22 (Chazhma Bay) in 1985.
Pollution of the coastal waters of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and open areas of the Kara and Barents Seas due to the discharge of liquid and flooding of solid radioactive waste by ships of the Navy and Atomflot.
Places of underground nuclear explosions in the interests of the national economy, where the release of products of nuclear reactions to the surface of the earth is noted or underground migration of radionuclides is possible.
http://www.site/users/lsd_86/post84466272

List of nuclear facilities in Russia. Part 2.

We continue the topic of places from which one must stay away ... In addition to the existing nuclear facilities in Russia, we got a large number of nuclear explosions from the USSR carried out for "decent purposes".

In the period from 1965 to 1988, 124 peaceful nuclear explosions were carried out in the USSR in the interests of the national economy. Of these, the objects Kraton-3, Kristall, Taiga and Globus-1 were recognized as emergency.

Figure 1. Nuclear explosions for seismic sounding of the territory of the USSR.
The rectangle indicates the names of projects carried out using VNIITF devices.

Figure 2. Industrial nuclear explosions on the territory of the USSR.
The rectangle indicates the names of projects carried out using VNIITF nuclear explosive devices.

List of nuclear explosions by regions of Russia

Arhangelsk region.
"Globus-2". 80 km northeast of Kotlas (160 km northeast of the city of Veliky Ustyug), 2.3 kilotons, October 4, 1971. On September 9, 1988, the Rubin-1 explosion with a capacity of 8.5 kilotons was carried out there, the last peaceful nuclear explosion in the USSR.
"Agate". 150 km west of the city of Mezen, July 19, 1985, 8.5 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Astrakhan region.
15 explosions under the Vega program - the creation of underground tanks for storing gas condensate. The power of the charges is from 3.2 to 13.5 kilotons. 40 km from Astrakhan, 1980-1984.

Bashkiria.
Kama series. Two explosions of 10 kilotons each in 1973 and 1974, 22 km west of the city of Sterlitamak. Creation of underground tanks for the disposal of industrial effluents from the Salavat petrochemical plant and the Sterlitamak soda-cement plant.
In 1980 - five explosions "Butan" with a capacity of 2.3 to 3.2 kilotons 40 km east of the city of Meleuz at the Grachevsky oil field. Intensification of oil and gas production.

Irkutsk region.
"Meteorite-4". 12 km northeast of the village of Ust-Kut, September 10, 1977, power - 7.6 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Rift-3". 160 km north of Irkutsk, July 31, 1982, power - 8.5 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Kemerovo region.
"Quartz-4", 50 km southwest of Mariinsk, September 18, 1984, capacity - 10 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Murmansk region.
"Dnepr-1". 20-21 km northeast of Kirovsk, September 4, 1972, power - 2.1 kilotons. Crushing of apatite ore. In 1984, a similar explosion "Dnepr-2" was carried out there.

Ivanovo region.
"Globe-1". 40 km northeast of Kineshma, September 19, 1971, power - 2.3 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Kalmykia.
"Region-4". 80 km northeast of Elista, October 3, 1972, power - 6.6 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Komi.
"Globus-4". 25 km southwest of Vorkuta, July 2, 1971, power - 2.3 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Globe-3". 130 km southwest of the city of Pechora, 20 km east of the Lemyu railway station, July 10, 1971, capacity - 2.3 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Quartz-2". 80 km southwest of Pechora, August 11, 1984, power - 8.5 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Krasnoyarsk region.
"Horizon-3". Lake Lama, Cape Thin, September 29, 1975, power - 7.6 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Meteorite-2". Lake Lama, Cape Thin, July 26, 1977, capacity - 13 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Kraton-2". 95 km southwest of the city of Igarka, September 21, 1978, power - 15 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Rift-4". 25-30 km southeast of the village of Noginsk, capacity 8.5 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
"Rift-1". Ust-Yenisei region, 190 km west of Dudinka, October 4, 1982, capacity - 16 kilotons. Seismic sounding.

Orenburg region.
"Magistral" (another name is "Sovkhoznoe"). 65 km northeast of Orenburg, June 25, 1970, power - 2.3 kilotons. Creation of a cavity in an array of rock salt at the Orenburg gas-oil condensate field.
Two explosions of 15 kilotons "Sapphire" (another name is "Dedurovka"), produced in 1971 and 1973. Creation of a container in an array of rock salt.
"Region-1" and "Region-2": 70 km southwest of the city of Buzuluk, capacity - 2.3 kilotons, November 24, 1972. Seismic sounding.

Perm region.
"Griffin" - in 1969, two explosions of 7.6 kilotons 10 km south of the city of Osa, at the Osinsky oil field. Intensification of oil production.
"Taiga". March 23, 1971, three charges of 5 kilotons in the Cherdynsky district of the Perm region, 100 km north of the city of Krasnovishersk. Excavation, for the construction of the Pechora-Kama canal.
Five explosions with a capacity of 3.2 kilotons from the Helium series, 20 km southeast of the city of Krasnovishersk, which were carried out in 1981-1987. Intensification of oil and gas production at the Gezha oil field. Intensification of oil and gas production.

Stavropol region.
"Otahta-Kugulta". 90 km north of Stavropol, August 25, 1969, capacity - 10 kilotons. Intensification of gas production.

Tyumen region.
"Tavda". 70 km northeast of Tyumen, capacity 0.3 kilotons. Creation of an underground reservoir.

Yakutia.
"Crystal". 70 km northeast of the village of Aikhal, 2 km from the village of Udachny-2, October 2, 1974, capacity - 1.7 kilotons. Creation of a dam for the Udachny mining and processing plant.
"Horizon-4". 120 km southwest of the city of Tiksi, August 12, 1975, 7.6 kilotons.
From 1976 to 1987 - five explosions with a capacity of 15 kilotons from the series of explosions "Oka", "Sheksna", "Neva". 120 km southwest of the city of Mirny, on the Srednebotuobinsky oil field. Intensification of oil production.
"Kraton-4". 90 km northwest of the village of Sangar, August 9, 1978, 22 kilotons, seismic sounding.
"Kraton-3", 50 km east of the village of Aikhal, August 24, 1978, capacity - 19 kilotons. Seismic sounding.
Seismic sounding. "Vyatka". 120 km southwest of the city of Mirny, October 8, 1978, 15 kilotons. Intensification of oil and gas production.
"Kimberlite-4". 130 km southwest of Verkhnevilyuisk, August 12, 1979, 8.5 kilotons, seismic sounding.

On air Ulyanovsk, Sergey Gogin:

Dimitrovgrad, the second largest city in the Ulyanovsk region, is known for being the location of the Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, abbreviated as RIAR. As follows from the analysis of medical statistics conducted by the municipal "Environmental Protection Service", since 1997, the number of endocrine diseases began to grow among the population of the city, and quite sharply. And by 2000, the incidence had almost quadrupled. It was in the summer of 1997 that an increased release of radioactive iodine-131 took place at RIAR for three weeks. Says the head of the Dimitrovgrad public organization "Center for the Development of Civil Initiatives" Mikhail Piskunov.

Mikhail Piskunov: It was the shutdown of the reactor on 25 July. It was necessary to pull out the TVEL with broken sealing. But due to the fact that the staff made a mistake, both inert gases and iodine were released.

Sergei Gogin: Radioactive iodine is dangerous for the thyroid gland, because it actively accumulates in it, causing cancer and other diseases. They were noted in people who fell into the zone of action of the Chernobyl accident. Mikhail Piskunov calls the incident at RIAR a mini-Chernobyl.

Mikhail Piskunov: The Middle Volga region is an iodine-deficient region. There is a lack of stable iodine in water and food. In this regard, the thyroid gland actively absorbs radioactive iodine, if iodine prophylaxis is not carried out.

Sergei Gogin: In 2003, human rights activist and journalist Piskunov published an article in the Dimitrovgrad newspaper Channel 25, where he stated that his organization predicted an increase in thyroid diseases among Dimitrovgrad residents after the incident at RIAR. He referred to statistics from which it followed that in 2000, endocrine disorders in children in Dimitrovgad were five times more common than on average in Russia.

Mikhail Piskunov: Radioactive iodine was found in the milk of cows. Probably, this radioactive substance began to enter the body of children. And even more dangerous in this situation are children who are in the womb. Because they have a small thyroid gland. The consequences for these children will appear in 10-15 years.

Sergei Gogin: The leadership of the Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and Mikhail Piskunov for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation. The process took over three years. The Ulyanovsk Arbitration Court twice satisfied the claim, the federal court of the Volga District twice canceled this decision. The trial was moved to the neighboring region. The Arbitration Court of the Penza Region partially satisfied the claim, recognizing that Mikhail Piskunov should not have qualified the incident as an accident in his article. On the other hand, the court upheld the ecologist's right to express an opinion on the possible consequences of the radiation accident at RIAR for public health.
What is important is that Mikhail Piskunov used the court as a tool for obtaining the truth. RIAR had to provide the court with about two dozen documents confirming the release of radioactive iodine in 1997.

Mikhail Piskunov: The most important thing that we received was two certificates. Set emission limit. And how much was thrown out every day, and sometimes it was 15-20 times higher.

Sergei Gogin: Based on the data obtained in court, Piskunov claims that in three weeks RIAR emitted 500 Curies of radioactive iodine into the atmosphere, which could harm the health of the population of the entire Middle Volga region. I did not manage to talk to any of the specialists from the Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad. They don't comment on the phone here. The maximum that was achieved was a short commentary by the head of the RIAR press service, Galina Pavlova:

Galina Pavlova: The management of the Institute is satisfied with the decision made by the court.

Sergey Gogin: Nuclear workers insist: there was no accident in 1997, radiation did not go beyond the sanitary protection zone. Therefore, there was no need to frighten people, just as there was no need for iodine prophylaxis. The latter conclusion, by the way, is refuted by the examination of the Endocrinological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, carried out at the request of Mikhail Piskunov. Ulyanovsk ecologist Ivan Pogodin believes that it is important not to talk about the terms - an accident or not an accident, but the fact that there was a release of an active isotope of iodine or not.

Ivan Pogodin: The consequences are important. If an excess of 15-20 times is proved, then, I believe that, regardless of the statute of limitations, this case cannot be closed. Again, it is necessary to raise the medical statistics for the past years. Just after 10 years, usually, if something affects the health of the population, then the dynamics can be traced.

Sergei Gogin: Human rights activist Mikhail Piskunov says that he intends to seek improved organization of iodine prophylaxis for the residents of Dimitrovgrad in case of a radioactive release.
http://www.svobodanews.ru/Forum/11994.html
http://www.site/users/igor_korn/post92986428

At first glance, the answer to this question will be as logically justified as to the sacramental "how does a raven look like a desk?". But only at first glance. On the second, an associative chain of answers will begin to line up, the keywords of which will be “accident” and “radioactive”. And those who are especially knowledgeable will remember RIAR.

The Research Institute of Atomic Reactors is potentially the most dangerous place in Russia, if not in all of Eurasia. But, in order.

This enterprise was created in the early 60s to study all possible problems of nuclear energy. This honorable task was decided to be carried out in the Ulyanovsk region. The city of Dimitrovgrad was lucky. The nearest cities are Ulyanovsk (100 km) and Samara (250 km).

“... A city in a forest or a forest in a city? - ask the guests who came here for the first time, surprised by the enchanting beauty of the city landscape ... "is written on the official website of RIAR, describing "a unique experimental base based on seven research reactors (SM, MIR, RBT-6, RBT-10/1, RBT-10 /2, BOR-60, VK-50), which allows conducting research on topical issues of the nuclear energy industry" and all the ecological cleanliness of the surrounding forest-urban landscape: "in the forest, which on warm spring nights freezes from the rolling trills of the nightingale" (ibid. ). It is even surprising that there are some dissatisfied.

Kornilov Igor Nikolaevich from Ulyanovsk, head of the human rights organization "Legal Fund" says:
- RIAR is a very large organization, the main products it produces are weapons-grade plutonium for strategic warheads and California. Production capacity: 8 nuclear reactors, i.е. Nuclear power plants - they didn’t even stand close here ...

Eight? And on their website it says 7…
- There are eight of them ... All eight are research, two more stands ... I believe that they exclude the reactor for producing weapons-grade plutonium from the list, since applications for it are not accepted (for work), since it is already working in full .. .

And are they really dangerous?
- Several times there were emergency situations with the release of radioactive substances, once Kazan environmentalists sounded the alarm, having discovered Strontium (its radioactive isotope) in their water, while Kazan is 200 kilometers upstream of the Volga. They tried to attract environmentalists who made a fuss to responsibility for divulging the "secret", then for slander ... and the media kept silent that the radioactive element got into the drinking water of several cities.

There was a story about how the residents of Dimitrovgrad panicked when they saw that snow and topsoil were urgently removed and taken out in the city, in an unknown direction ... The media again remained silent, however, the director of RIAR was replaced with a new one ...

Did the situation change with the replacement of the director?
- With the new one, there was a release - Iodine -131, the wind rose is such in the city that a juvenile colony got into the plume of the release, and while watering machines were working in the city, endocrinologists fought off patients with an inflamed thyroid gland (theriotoxicosis) in polyclinics ... media and the authorities were silent, because it was necessary to provide the population with expensive medicines to remove Iodine-131 from the body.

And what is special about this iodine?
- The main problem is that all isotopes (excluding Strontium) are short-lived. Iodine-131 decays in about a week... and then, of course, no investigating commission will find any traces... you can only detect an outbreak of thyroid diseases... but, according to the prosecutor's office, this is not a sufficient basis for initiating a criminal case.. .

The general situation is as follows: the Ministry of Emergency Situations told me that they do not have the necessary equipment to monitor the situation at RIAR. At the SES, they said that they believe the RIAR security service "at their word" because they have their own safety laboratory, but the SES is not allowed to go there ... The hydrometeorological center confirmed that the level of conventional isotopes is within the normal range, but there are much more artificial isotopes, but MPC ( maximum permissible concentration) - they are absent and therefore no one knows whether the level of radiation is dangerous or not ...

RIAR - commenting on the situation, he referred to the Geiger counters installed at the enterprise, and the fact that some of the counters are located in the city in places visible to the population, but to the remark that the installed counters register gamma radiation and do not register either alpha or beta - radiation ... they hung up and interrupted the conversation every time the question of ionizing radiation from emergency emissions was raised ...

Indirect confirmation of the dangerous situation was received from the Regional Health Department, which confirmed that Dimitrovgrad has been successfully leading in recent years in terms of the number of endocrine diseases and oncology, bypassing Ulyanovsk by an order of magnitude in the number of patients ...

In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - there is an article on criminal liability for concealing facts representing a public danger ... but ...

But this is a secret enterprise, isn't it?
- The enterprise is secret, but relatively, it is too well known in the world to be classified, nevertheless, the protection of the enterprise and its secrets is the department of the FSB.

Is Dimitrovgrad a big city?
- The population is about 250,000 people, plus a prison, plus three correctional institutions and more colonies-settlements attached to them; a number of military units. Yes, this figure is not according to the official size of the city, but according to the population in the 30-kilometer sanitary zone around the reactors, i.e. it includes all nearby settlements, as required by technical supervision.

Then it seems that it is easier for interested parties to control all the local media than to spend money on expensive drugs for such a large number of people. Moreover, for the FSB, this is a matter of habit.

However, it is difficult to hide the obvious. So in 1997 there was a powerful release of iodine-131 that lasted three weeks! In 1998, there was a powerful jump in the incidence of diseases of the endocrine system among the inhabitants of Dimitrovgrad, and in 1999 it reached its peak, exceeding the national figure by almost three times.

Emissions occur from time to time, now the question is about legalizing 30 km. of the sanitary zone around RIAR, on the certainty in the issue of using RIAR as an APEC (on the maximum permissible power, for an experimental reactor (there are no analogues in the world and probably will not be) operating on plutonium (on the processing of weapons-grade plutonium from end-of-life arsenals), on the installation of a complete a complex of dosimetric means (control of water, air and soil, for all types of radiation).I explain this point: for example, the Hydrometeorological Center daily reports on the level of radioactive background, but this is a natural background, and why are they silent about the radiation of newly created isotopes of cobalt, strontium, etc.? Why is the Ministry of Emergency Situations unable to obtain permission to install independent means of control?
And in the end, why are calves born with two heads? And after that, listen to the arguments of politicians about the poor knowledge of radiation on the population?

What exactly needs to be done and what can be done?
- Let me explain my position. The issue of diseases and mutations is related to the protection of the rights of the third generation, i.e. descendants, but their rights should be protected today... Therefore, our task is:
1. move beyond 30 km. zones: orphanages and boarding schools, maternity hospitals, places of detention of convicts (especially children and adolescents, youth);
2. ensure a minimum stay of 30 km. the RIAR zone of the presence of the reproductive population, and timely medical supply of the population with the necessary drugs;
3. timely notification of citizens about emergency situations at RIAR;

Good proposals, but for their implementation it is necessary that the concern for people in our state exceeds the concern for maintaining the secrecy of everything and everything that somehow poses a serious threat to society, and hence public safety. Although this logic of large offices is beyond my understanding.
http://www.site/community/2685736/post92816729

1.

After the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, a 30-kilometer exclusion zone was created around the plant. Although a positive trend is emerging (in 2010 Narodychsky district of the Zhytomyr region was excluded from the list of closed territories), the consequences of the disaster still affect people's lives.

INVISIBLE TERRIBLE ENEMY

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which occurred on April 26, 1986, was an unprecedented event in the history of nuclear energy. However, the scale of the disaster was not obvious in the first hours after the incident: there was no data on the release of radiation, and all forces were thrown to extinguish the fire.

The decision to build a nuclear power plant four kilometers from the village of Kopachi in the Chernobyl region of the Ukrainian SSR was approved by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 29, 1966. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant (originally the Central Ukrainian nuclear power plant) was supposed to provide electricity to the entire Central Energy Region, which included 27 regions Ukrainian SSR and the Rostov region of the RSFSR.

The choice of a site for the construction of the future nuclear power plant was, in particular, due to the fact that the areas receiving electricity had to be located within a radius of 350-450 km from the plant. In addition, specialists from the Teploelektroproekt Institute of the USSR Ministry of Energy and the Kyiv Design Bureau Energosetproekt concluded that the conditions at the selected site made it possible to establish uninterrupted water supply to the nuclear power plant and build transport infrastructure. In addition, the lands near the village of Kopachi were recognized as unproductive in terms of economic use, which minimized the economic losses of the region.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was built in several stages. The construction of the first stage was completed in 1977, the launch of the first and second power units took place in 1978. The second stage was ready by 1983. The construction of the third stage was started in 1981, but was never completed.

Already after construction work began, on February 4, 1970, the city of Pripyat was founded three kilometers from the nuclear power plant, intended for workers and employees of the future station.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which became one of the most severe man-made disasters in the history of mankind, occurred on April 26, 1986 at 01:23. At that moment, during the testing of the eighth turbogenerator, the fourth power unit exploded. Its structure was completely destroyed. As the examination later revealed, the explosion occurred as a result of an uncontrolled increase in the power of the reactor.

Fire crews were the first to arrive on the scene. Having neither information about the destruction, nor data on radiation measurements, firefighters set about extinguishing the fire at the fourth reactor. Already an hour and a half later, the first victims began to appear with symptoms of severe radiation exposure.

At first, the residents of the surrounding area were not informed about the incident and were not given any recommendations in connection with the possible release of radiation. The first message about the accident appeared in the Soviet media only on April 27, 36 hours after the accident. Within a radius of 10 km around the explosion site, a temporary evacuation of residents was announced, this also applied to the city of Pripyat. Later, the evacuation zone was expanded to a 30-kilometer radius. Then it was about the fact that people would be able to return to their homes in a few days, it was not allowed to take personal belongings with them.

In the first days after the accident, the northern regions of the Kyiv and Zhitomir regions, the Gomel region of Belarus and the Bryansk region suffered the most. Later, the wind carried the radiation cloud to more distant territories, as a result of which polluting elements in the form of gases, aerosols and fuel particles settled in, and in other states.

Work on liquidation of the consequences of the accident proceeded at a record pace. Already by November 1986, a concrete shelter, also called a sarcophagus, was erected over the destroyed fourth power unit.

Despite the severe radiation pollution in the area of ​​the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, already on October 1, 1986, the first power unit of the station was restarted, and on November 5 of the same year, the second power unit. December 4, 1987 earned the third power unit of the nuclear power plant. Only on December 15, 2000, the nuclear power plant stopped generating electricity.

ECHOES OF A TRAGEDY

Nearly 30 years after the Chernobyl accident, experts still cannot give comprehensive answers to many questions on which the future of nuclear energy and the well-being of mankind depend.

So far, experts have not come to a unified conclusion about what exactly led to the development of the emergency at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. According to one of the versions, the station personnel, who were directly involved in the tests of the eighth turbogenerator and violated the work regulations, are guilty of what happened. According to another version, the station staff only exacerbated the problem, which was based on the design features of the reactor that did not comply with nuclear safety rules, and an undeveloped system for monitoring the operation of the nuclear power plant.

To this day, there are inaccurate data on how many people died or were injured in the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This is because the link between radiation exposure and health problems is not always obvious, and the effects of infection can be long-term and affect the genetic level.

As a direct result of the explosion of the fourth reactor of the station, three people died. Approximately 600 people from among the employees of the nuclear power plant and firefighters were exposed to radiation, 28 people died shortly after the accident due to the development of acute radiation sickness. It is assumed that only on the territory of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, more than 8 million people were exposed to radiation.

Since 1986, a zone of alienated radiation-dangerous territory has been established within a radius of 30 km around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It is under constant guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, to cross its borders you need to obtain a special permit. In addition, visitors must be accompanied by a guide; movement through the contaminated area is possible only along a pre-approved route. The removal of any items outside the exclusion zone is prohibited by law; at the exit from the protected area, the clothes and personal belongings of visitors are checked using a dosimeter. However, the restrictions do not stop the so-called stalkers - illegal tourists who prefer to explore the exclusion zone on their own.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant still poses a danger. This is connected, among other things, with the beginning of the destruction of the old sarcophagus at the site of the fourth power unit, which can lead to a radiation leak. In February 2013, the collapse of the roof and ceilings of the sarcophagus was registered. A new protective structure is currently being erected over the first sarcophagus. It is planned to be completed in 2015-2016.

The issues of curbing the spread of radiation are currently being handled by the State Special Enterprise "Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant", which was founded on April 25, 2001. Its main tasks are the disposal of radioactive waste, monitoring the radiation background in the nuclear power plant area and the construction of a new, more reliable sarcophagus over the fourth power unit. The organization is also taking measures to ensure that radiation particles do not get into water bodies, including the Kiev reservoir.

Several nature reserves are located in the exclusion zone, among them is the Polessky State Radiation and Ecological Reserve, located within the most affected areas of the Gomel region of Belarus. It was created in 1988, primarily to study the impact of radiation contamination on the environment, as well as on the development of flora and fauna. However, this reserve is valuable not only as a platform for research: the wildlife world here is practically isolated from the external environment, which gives animals, including rare species, a chance to survive, and biologists to study them in natural conditions.

ATTRACTION

Chernobyl:

■ St. Elijah's Church (first mentioned in the 16th century).

■ Castle of the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (mid-XV century)

Pripyat:

■ Main square.

■ Ferris wheel in the city park.

Natural:

■ Polessky State Radiation and Ecological Reserve.

■ Pripyatsky National Park.

■ Red Forest (near Chernobyl).

■ Tree-cross (Chernobyl).

■ The name of the city of Chernobyl comes from Chernobyl - a type of wormwood. In the Revelations of John the Theologian, the last book of the New Testament, which is also called the Apocalypse, there are these lines: “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a lamp, and fell on a third of the rivers and on the sources of water. The name of this star is "wormwood"; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they became bitter” (Rev. 8; 10-11). After the tragedy in Chernobyl, various interpretations of these words about the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment began to spread. But religious scholars have clarified: in the Bible, “wormwood” means a comet, which in ancient times was considered a harbinger of trouble.

■ Despite the evacuation and the beginning of work to eliminate the consequences of the accident, the Soviet authorities still tried to minimize panic among the population, so the traditional May Day demonstrations were not canceled. As a result, people who were unaware of the true extent of the disaster received an additional dose of radiation.

■ The first mention of Chernobyl in Russian chronicles dates back to 1193.

■ The so-called Red Forest, located in the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, got its nickname because after the explosion of the fourth power unit, it took on a huge dose of radiation exposure - about 8,000-10,000 rads. As a result, all the trees died and turned brown. The forest was later destroyed and is now being restored naturally.

■ In 2013, Chernobyl was included in the list of the most polluted cities according to the American non-profit research organization - the Blacksmith Institute.

■ The self-settlers who returned permanently to the exclusion zone are mostly elderly people who preferred their own houses to those provided by the state.
Most of them are engaged in housekeeping and gathering.

■ Currently, the Pripyat River is the main source of radionuclide leakage outside the exclusion zone.

■ Pripyat was the ninth atomograd, as it was customary to call the villages of power engineers at nuclear power plants in the USSR.