Radiation Victims in Russia

Lubov' Makarova reads from her list of the recently deceased inhabitants from her village, which she began compiling after the death of her parents. She and other villagers still use the radioactive contaminated Techa river for swimming and fishing. She makes a living from selling mushrooms from a nearby forest.

Unique identifier: GP0STOMIT

Type: Image

Shoot date: 27/09/2014

Locations: Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia

Credit line: © Greenpeace / Liza Udilova

Ranking: ★★★★ (E)

Containers

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Radioactive Contamination from Mayak Nuclear Facility in Russia

The Techa River has been heavily contaminated by multiple accidents, discharges, and routine releases from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise ‘Production Enterprise Mayak’ (the FSUE ‘PE Mayak’), a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in the Chelyabinsk province in the South Urals, Russia. One of the worst of the accidents at Mayak was the Kyshtym disaster on 29 September 1957, during which a spent nuclear fuel tank exploded, spewing massive amounts of radiological contamination. Although there is no direct dumping today, the river remains heavily contaminated with radiological pollution, and continues to be polluted through routine discharges from Mayak via bypass canals and the filtrate of Dam 11. Communities not evacuated in the wake of the disasters are forced to continue living in a heavily radioactive environment.

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