kyshtym disaster in 1957 is not an accident, associated with nuclear energy, which is why it is difficult to name the nuclear.Kyshtym it is called, because the tragedy took place in a secret city, which is a closed object.Kyshtym - a town that is located closest to the accident site.
authorities managed to keep secret the accident on a global scale.Information about the crash has been available to the population of the country until the late 1980s, that is, 30 years after the incident.And the true scale of the disaster became known only in recent years.
technical accident
often kyshtym disaster in 1957 is associated with a nuclear catastrophe.But in reality it is not so.The accident happened on Sept. 29, 1957 in the Sverdlovsk region, in the closed city, which at that time was called Chelyabinsk-40.Today it is known as Ozersk.
noteworthy that in Chelyabinsk-40 there was a chemical accident, not nuclear.This city has the largest Soviet chemical plant "Mayak".The production of this plant requires a large volume of radioactive waste stored at the plant.The accident occurred just with these chemical waste.
During Soviet times, the name of the city was classified, due to which to refer to the place of accident using the name of the neighboring village, which is the Kyshtym.
cause of the crash
Industrial waste is stored in special steel containers placed in containers that have been dug into the ground.All containers were equipped with a cooling system because of the radioactive elements are constantly going on the allocation of large amounts of heat.
September 29, 1957 cooling system in one of the tanks serves as a repository, out of order.Likely problems in the system can be detected earlier, but because of the lack of instrumentation repair procedure worn.Maintenance of such equipment has proved difficult because of the need for long residence time in the zone of high radiation levels.
As a result, the pressure inside the container began to grow.And at 16:22 (local time) there was a loud explosion.It later emerged that the container was not designed for such pressure: the force of the explosion of TNT was about 100 tons.
scale incident
from the plant "Mayak" is waiting for a nuclear accident resulting from a failure in the production, so the main preventive measures are aimed at preventing this type of emergency.
No one could not imagine that the Kyshtym accident that occurred in the storage of radioactive waste, will take away the palm from the main production and attract the attention of the Soviet Union.
So, as a result of problems with the cooling system exploded capacity of 300 cubic meters.meters, which was 80 cubic meters of highly radioactive nuclear waste.As a result, the atmosphere was thrown about 20 million curies of radioactive substances.The power of the explosion of TNT exceeded 70 tons.As a result of the now formed a huge cloud of radioactive dust.
It started its journey from the plant and 10 hours reached the Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions.The area of ​​destruction was enormous - 23 000 sq.km.Yet the bulk of the radioactive elements are not carried away by the wind.They settled directly at the plant "Mayak".
All transport and communication facilities have been exposed to radiation.Moreover, the radiation power the first 24 hours after the explosion was 100 roentgen per hour.Radioactive elements were on the territory of the military and the fire brigade, as well as the camp prisoners.
Evacuation of people
later, 10 hours after the accident received permission from Moscow to evacuate.People all the time are in the contaminated area, not having any protective equipment.Evacuate people in an open car, some were forced to go on foot.
After occurred kyshtym disaster (1957), trapped under a radioactive rain, people have been sanitized.They were given clean clothes, but, as it turned out, these measures were not enough.The skin is so much absorbed the radioactive elements that more than 5,000 injured in the crash received a single dose of about 100 X-rays.Later they were assigned to different military units.
The cleaning dirt
most dangerous and difficult task for decontamination lay on the shoulders of volunteer soldiers.Military builders who had to clean up after the accident radioactive waste did not want to carry out this dangerous work.The soldiers decided not to obey the orders of his superiors.In addition, the officers themselves, too, did not want to send their employees for cleaning radioactive waste because guess about the danger of radioactive contamination.
remarkable is the fact that while the experience of cleaning the buildings from the radioactive contamination was not.Roads were washed a special tool, and contaminated soil removed by bulldozers and taken away for disposal.There also sent felled trees, clothes, shoes and other items.Volunteers to eliminate the consequences of the accident, issued every day a new set of clothes.
emergency workers
people involved in disaster relief, a shift must not have received a radiation dose in excess of 2 x-rays.Total presence in the infected area, this rule should not exceed 25 X-ray.Yet, experience shows that these rights are constantly violated.According to statistics, over the entire period of liquidation work (1957-1959 gg.) About 30 thousand employees "Lighthouse" received radiation exposure exceeding 25 rem.These statistics do not include people working in areas adjacent to "lighthouse" territories.For example, soldiers from nearby military units involved in the often dangerous to life and health work.They did not know for what purpose they were brought there, and what is the real degree of danger of the work entrusted to them to perform.Young soldiers constituted the overwhelming majority of the total number of liquidators.
Implications for factory workers
The staff turned the company kyshtym disaster?Photos of victims and medical reports prove once again the tragedy of this terrible accident.As a result, the chemical composition of the plant catastrophe brought more than 10 thousand employees with symptoms of radiation sickness.At 2.5 thousand radiation sickness has been established with certainty.These victims have received external and internal exposure, as they have not had the opportunity to protect their lungs from radioactive elements, especially plutonium.
Help locals
important to know that it's not all the trouble that resulted in a 1957 accident Kyshtym photos and other evidence suggest that the work involved, even local schoolchildren.They came into the field to harvest potatoes and other vegetables.When the harvest was over, they were told that the vegetables to be destroyed.Vegetables laid in the trench, and then buried.Straw had to burn.Then tractors plowed contaminated by radiation fields and dug the wells.
Soon residents, it was reported that the area was discovered large oil fields, and they urgently need to move.Abandoned buildings dismantled, cleaned and shipped bricks to build pigsties and cowsheds.
It is worth noting that all these works were carried out without the use of respirators and special gloves.Many people had no idea that they eliminate the consequences of the Kyshtym accident.Therefore, most of them do not receive a confirmation certificates, which would have been told that their health has suffered irreparable harm.
After 30 years after the Kyshtym was a terrible tragedy, the authorities' attitude to the safety of nuclear facilities in the Soviet Union has changed dramatically.But it did not help us to avoid the worst in the history of the disaster, which occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 26, 1986.
