Mayak
Encyclopedia
Mayak Production Association (Russian: Маяк производственное объединение, from Маяк "lighthouse") refers to an industrial complex that is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. It housed plutonium production reactors and a reprocessing plant
. Located 150 km south-east of Ekaterinburg between the towns of Kasli
and 72 km northwest of Chelyabinsk
, the closest city to the nuclear complex is Ozyorsk
, the central administrative territorial district. As part of the Russian nuclear weapon program, Mayak was formerly known as Chelyabinsk-40 and later as Chelyabinsk-65 after the postal codes of the site.
In 1957, Mayak was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history
when the explosion of a poorly maintained storage tank released 50-100 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste
, contaminating a huge territory in the eastern Urals and causing numerous deaths and injuries from radiation poisoning
. The Soviet regime kept this accident secret for about 30 years. The event was eventually rated as a 6 on the 7-level INES
scale, second in severity only to the disasters at Chernobyl
in the Ukraine and Fukushima Daiichi
in Japan. This rating was however made prior to the fall of the Soviet Union and without an accurate appreciation for the "widespread health and environmental effects" associated with the incident; if reclassified, it would likely also be level 7.
Working conditions at Mayak, and a lack of environmental responsibility in the past, led to additional contamination of the surrounding lake district and severe health hazards and accidents. Some areas are still under restricted access because of radiation. In the past 45 years, about 400,000 people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents. Mayak was a target of Gary Powers
' U-2
surveillance flight in May 1960.
, as part of the Soviet Union
's nuclear weapon program
. The plant's original mission was to make, refine, and machine plutonium
for weapons. Five nuclear reactors were built for this purpose. Later the plant came to specialize in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
from nuclear reactor
s, and plutonium from decommissioned weapons. Today the plant makes tritium
and radioisotopes, but no plutonium. In recent years, proposals that the plant reprocess, for money, waste from foreign nuclear reactors have given rise to controversy.
In the early years of its operation, the Mayak plant released quantities of radioactively contaminated water into several small lakes near the plant, and into the Techa river, whose waters ultimately flow into the Ob River
. The downstream consequences of this radiation pollution have yet to be determined. Some residents of Ozersk
claim that living there poses no present-day risk, because of the decrease in the ambient radiation level over the past 50 years. They also report no problems with their health and the health of Mayak plant workers. However, these claims lack hard verification, and many who worked at the plant in 1950s and '60s subsequently died of the effects of radiation. While the situation has since improved, the administration of the Mayak plant has been repeatedly criticized in recent years for environmentally unsound practices.
). This released 740 PBq (20 MCi) of fission products, of which 74 PBq (2 MCi) drifted off the site, creating a contaminated region of 15,000-20,000 km2 called the East Urals Radioactive trace. Subsequently, at least 200 people died of radiation sickness, 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and 470,000 people were exposed to radiation. People "grew hysterical with fear with the incidence of unknown 'mysterious' diseases breaking out. Victims were seen with skin 'sloughing off' their faces, hands and other exposed parts of their bodies." "Hundreds of square miles were left barren and unusable for decades and maybe centuries. Hundreds of people died, thousands were injured and surrounding areas were evacuated." This nuclear accident, the Soviet Union
's worst before the Chernobyl disaster
, is categorised as a level 6 "serious accident" on the 0-7 International Nuclear Events Scale.
Rumours of a nuclear mishap somewhere in the vicinity of Chelyabinsk had long been circulating in the West. That there had been a serious nuclear accident west of the Urals was eventually inferred from research on the effects of radioactivity on plants, animals, and ecosystems, published by Professor Leo Tumerman, former head of the Biophysics Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, and associates.
According to Gyorgy, who invoked the Freedom of Information Act to open up the relevant Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) files, the CIA knew of the 1957 Mayak accident all along, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling USA nuclear industry. "Ralph Nader
surmised that the information had not been released because of the reluctance of the CIA to highlight a nuclear accident in the USSR, that could cause concern among people living near nuclear facilities in the USA." Only in 1992, shortly after the fall of the USSR, did the Russians officially acknowledge the accident.
The Mayak plant is associated with two other major nuclear accidents. The first occurred as a result of heavy rains causing Lake Karachay
, a dried-up radioactively polluted lake (used as a dumping basin for Mayak's radioactive waste since 1951), to release radioactive material into surrounding waters. The second occurred in 1967 when wind spread dust from the bottom of Lake Karachay
over parts of Ozersk
; over 400,000 people were irradiated.
Nuclear reprocessing
Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Reprocessing serves multiple purposes, whose relative importance has changed over time. Originally reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing...
. Located 150 km south-east of Ekaterinburg between the towns of Kasli
Kasli
Kasli is a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Chelyabinsk. Population: It was founded in 1747 as the settlement of Kaslinsky around a foundry...
and 72 km northwest of Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...
, the closest city to the nuclear complex is Ozyorsk
Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945...
, the central administrative territorial district. As part of the Russian nuclear weapon program, Mayak was formerly known as Chelyabinsk-40 and later as Chelyabinsk-65 after the postal codes of the site.
In 1957, Mayak was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history
Kyshtym disaster
The Kyshtym disaster was a radiation contamination incident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Russia...
when the explosion of a poorly maintained storage tank released 50-100 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste
High level waste
High level waste is a type of nuclear waste created by the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. It exists in two main forms:* First and second cycle raffinate and other waste streams created by nuclear reprocessing....
, contaminating a huge territory in the eastern Urals and causing numerous deaths and injuries from radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
. The Soviet regime kept this accident secret for about 30 years. The event was eventually rated as a 6 on the 7-level INES
Ines
Ines is a variation of the name Agnes.Ines may also refer to:* Inès, French variation of the name* Saint Ines * Inés Sainz Ines is a variation of the name Agnes.Ines may also refer to:* Inès, French variation of the name* Saint Ines (c. 291 – c. 304)* Inés Sainz Ines is a variation of the name...
scale, second in severity only to the disasters at Chernobyl
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
in the Ukraine and Fukushima Daiichi
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
in Japan. This rating was however made prior to the fall of the Soviet Union and without an accurate appreciation for the "widespread health and environmental effects" associated with the incident; if reclassified, it would likely also be level 7.
Working conditions at Mayak, and a lack of environmental responsibility in the past, led to additional contamination of the surrounding lake district and severe health hazards and accidents. Some areas are still under restricted access because of radiation. In the past 45 years, about 400,000 people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents. Mayak was a target of Gary Powers
Gary Powers
Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.- Early life :...
' U-2
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
surveillance flight in May 1960.
Nuclear history
The Mayak plant was built in 1945–48, in a great hurry and in total secrecyCivilian control of the military
Civilian control of the military is a doctrine in military and political science that places ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making in the hands of the civilian political leadership, rather than professional military officers. One author, paraphrasing Samuel P...
, as part of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's nuclear weapon program
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb , was a clandestine research and development program began during and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union's discovery of the United States' nuclear project...
. The plant's original mission was to make, refine, and machine plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
for weapons. Five nuclear reactors were built for this purpose. Later the plant came to specialize in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
Spent nuclear fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor...
from nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
s, and plutonium from decommissioned weapons. Today the plant makes tritium
Tritium
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium contains one proton and no neutrons...
and radioisotopes, but no plutonium. In recent years, proposals that the plant reprocess, for money, waste from foreign nuclear reactors have given rise to controversy.
In the early years of its operation, the Mayak plant released quantities of radioactively contaminated water into several small lakes near the plant, and into the Techa river, whose waters ultimately flow into the Ob River
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
. The downstream consequences of this radiation pollution have yet to be determined. Some residents of Ozersk
Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945...
claim that living there poses no present-day risk, because of the decrease in the ambient radiation level over the past 50 years. They also report no problems with their health and the health of Mayak plant workers. However, these claims lack hard verification, and many who worked at the plant in 1950s and '60s subsequently died of the effects of radiation. While the situation has since improved, the administration of the Mayak plant has been repeatedly criticized in recent years for environmentally unsound practices.
Kyshtym Disaster
Working conditions at Mayak resulted in severe health hazards and many accidents. The most notable accident occurred on 29 September 1957, when the failure of the cooling system for a tank storing tens of thousands of tons of dissolved nuclear waste resulted in a chemical (non-nuclear) explosion having a force estimated at about 75 tons of TNT (310 gigajoulesJoule
The joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...
). This released 740 PBq (20 MCi) of fission products, of which 74 PBq (2 MCi) drifted off the site, creating a contaminated region of 15,000-20,000 km2 called the East Urals Radioactive trace. Subsequently, at least 200 people died of radiation sickness, 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes, and 470,000 people were exposed to radiation. People "grew hysterical with fear with the incidence of unknown 'mysterious' diseases breaking out. Victims were seen with skin 'sloughing off' their faces, hands and other exposed parts of their bodies." "Hundreds of square miles were left barren and unusable for decades and maybe centuries. Hundreds of people died, thousands were injured and surrounding areas were evacuated." This nuclear accident, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's worst before the Chernobyl disaster
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, is categorised as a level 6 "serious accident" on the 0-7 International Nuclear Events Scale.
Rumours of a nuclear mishap somewhere in the vicinity of Chelyabinsk had long been circulating in the West. That there had been a serious nuclear accident west of the Urals was eventually inferred from research on the effects of radioactivity on plants, animals, and ecosystems, published by Professor Leo Tumerman, former head of the Biophysics Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, and associates.
According to Gyorgy, who invoked the Freedom of Information Act to open up the relevant Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) files, the CIA knew of the 1957 Mayak accident all along, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling USA nuclear industry. "Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
surmised that the information had not been released because of the reluctance of the CIA to highlight a nuclear accident in the USSR, that could cause concern among people living near nuclear facilities in the USA." Only in 1992, shortly after the fall of the USSR, did the Russians officially acknowledge the accident.
Other accidents
On 10 December 1968, the facility was experimenting with plutonium purification techniques. Two operators were using an "unfavorable geometry vessel in an improvised and unapproved operation as a temporary vessel for storing plutonium organic solution." In other words, the operators were decanting plutonium solutions into the wrong type of vessel. After most of the solution had been poured out, there was a flash of light, and heat. After the complex had been evacuated, the shift supervisor and radiation control supervisor re-entered the building. The shift supervisor then entered the room of the incident, caused another, larger nuclear reaction and irradiated himself with a deadly dose of radiation. The shift supervisor's actions are the subject of a Darwin Award nomination.The Mayak plant is associated with two other major nuclear accidents. The first occurred as a result of heavy rains causing Lake Karachay
Lake Karachay
Lake Karachay , sometimes spelled Karachai, is a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in western Russia. Starting in 1951 the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility, located near the town of...
, a dried-up radioactively polluted lake (used as a dumping basin for Mayak's radioactive waste since 1951), to release radioactive material into surrounding waters. The second occurred in 1967 when wind spread dust from the bottom of Lake Karachay
Lake Karachay
Lake Karachay , sometimes spelled Karachai, is a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in western Russia. Starting in 1951 the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility, located near the town of...
over parts of Ozersk
Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945...
; over 400,000 people were irradiated.
- In 1994, a fire resulted in a radioactive gas leak of 4% of the plant's allowed annual release.
- In 2003, the plant's operating licence was revoked temporarily, due to liquid radioactive waste handling procedures resulting in waste being disposed into open water.
- In June 2007, an accident involving a radioactive pulp occurred over a two-day period.
- In October 2007, a valve failure during transport of a radioactive liquid resulted in spilling of a radioactive material.
- In 2008, a repair worker was injured during a "pneumatic" incident, involving a quantity of alpha emitter release. The worker's hand was injured and the wound contaminated, with the worker's finger amputated to avoid further injury.
See also
- List of civilian nuclear accidents
- List of military nuclear accidents
- Nuclear and radiation accidentsNuclear and radiation accidentsA nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility...
- Nuclear contamination
- Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk OblastOzyorsk, Chelyabinsk OblastOzyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945...
- Radioactive contaminationRadioactive contaminationRadioactive contamination, also called radiological contamination, is radioactive substances on surfaces, or within solids, liquids or gases , where their presence is unintended or undesirable, or the process giving rise to their presence in such places...
- Radioactive wasteRadioactive wasteRadioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
- Reprocessed uraniumReprocessed uraniumReprocessed uranium is the uranium recovered from nuclear reprocessing, as done commercially in France, the UK and Japan and by nuclear weapons states' military plutonium production programs. This uranium actually makes up the bulk of the material separated during reprocessing...
- Techa the radioactive river
External links
- "Inside the Zone" by Alexander Zaitchik. The most in-depth recent report on the history of the Mayak plant and its impact on local communities.
- Material prepared for the Nuclear Threat Initiative by the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
- Chelyabinsk-65 / Ozersk Combine 817 / Production Association Mayak. From GlobalSecurity.org.
- On Ozersk and Mayak, from the Ural Press.
- Eyewitness accounts of unsafe working conditions at Mayak.
- Campaign to clean up Mayak. From Greenpeace web site.
- More from Greenpeace
- Article from the Russian press
- URAL CHERNOBIL: TRAGEDY of TATARS
- The book F.Bajramova "The nuclear archipelago or atomic genocide against Tatars" (1st chapter)
- Annotated bibliography for the Mayak nuclear complex from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- A part of the staff at Mayak (From their official homepage)