Mayak

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For other uses, see Mayak (disambiguation).
Satellite image/map of the Mayak nuclear facility.

Mayak (Russian: Маяк, "lighthouse") is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. 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.

Mayak is also known as the source of the serious contamination of a huge territory in the Ural area in 1957, which was kept secret by the Soviet regime for about 30 years. 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 half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents, exposing some of them to more than 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims. [1] [unreliable source]

Mayak was a goal of Gary Powers' surveillance flight in May 1960.[1][unreliable source]

Fissile Material Storage Facility (FMSF). Looking at administration building of the storage facility to include all the support facilities. Excavator is one of the pieces of construction equipment procured by the USACE.

Nuclear history

The Mayak plant was built in 1945–48, in a great hurry and in total secrecy, 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 reactors, 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. These claims lack hard verification, and no one denies that 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

Main article: Kyshtym disaster
Fissile Material Storage Facility (FMSF). Looking at the south side of the main Administration Building and security building of the storage facility.

Working conditions at Mayak resulted in severe health hazards and many accidents.[2] 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 gigajoules), which released some 2 million curies of radioactivity over 15,000 sq. miles.[3][4] 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."[5] "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."[6] 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,[7] 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."[5] Only in 1992, shortly after the fall of the USSR, did the Russians officially acknowledge the accident.

Other accidents

Fissile Material Storage Facility (FMSF). The building is the ventilation center of the storage facility. The ventilation tunnel showing in the north of the ventilation center.

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."[citation needed] 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 deceived the radiation control supervisor and entered the room of the incident and possibly attempted to pour the solution down a floor drain, causing a large nuclear reaction and irradiating himself with a deadly dose of radiation. The shift supervisor's actions are the subject of a Darwin Award nomination.[8]

The Mayak plant is associated with two other major nuclear accidents. The first occurred as a result of heavy rains causing Lake Karachay polluted with radioactive waste to release radioactive material into surrounding waters, and the second occurred in 1967 when wind spread dust from the bottom of Lake Karachay, a dried-up radioactively polluted lake (used as a dumping basin for Mayak's radioactive waste since 1951), over parts of Ozersk; over 400,000 people were irradiated.[4]

  • In 1994, a fire resulted in a radioactive gas leak of 4% of the plant's allowed annual release.[9]
  • 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.[10]
  • In June 2007, an accident involving a radioactive pulp occurred over a two-day period.[11]
  • In October 2007, a valve failure during transport of a radioactive liquid resulted in spilling of a radioactive material.[12]
  • 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.[13]

See also

Looking at storage facility processing materials, controls, accountability, and fissile material container storage from south-west angle.

References

  1. ^ a b "CHELYABINSK "The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet" - a documentary film by Slawomir Grunberg - Log In Productions - distributed by LogTV LTD". Logtv.com. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
  2. ^ Larin, Vladislav (September/October 1999). "Mayak's walking wounded". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 55 (5): 20–27. doi:10.2968/055005008. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ See List of military nuclear accidents
  4. ^ a b A report on the 1957 accident and on endemic radioactive pollution at Mayak
  5. ^ a b Pollock, Richard, 1978. "Soviets Experience Nuclear Accident," Critical Mass Journal 3 pp.7–8
  6. ^ Zhores Medvedev, The Australian, 9.12.1976
  7. ^ Gyorgy, A. et al., 1980. No Nukes: Everyone's Guide to Nuclear Power. South End Press ISBN 0896080064. pp. 13, 128
  8. ^ Glowing Georji: A 1994 Darwin Award nominee
  9. ^ http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/418/4146.html
  10. ^ http://www.bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/nuke_industry/siberia/mayak/27922
  11. ^ http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2007/Mayak_leak
  12. ^ http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2007/Mayak_leak
  13. ^ http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2008/another_mayak_incident

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mayak nuclear facility.

Coordinates: 55°42′45″N 60°50′53″E / 55.71250°N 60.84806°E / 55.71250; 60.84806

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