Chelyabinsk

The several Chelyabinks There are several Chelyabinsks. The first is Chelyabinsk City which produced have of the tanks in World War II. It went in to industrial decline with the end of the Soviet Union. There is Chelyabinsk 65 (also known as Mayak) which is the plutonium factory. There is Muslyumovo which is the village most impacted by secret dumping of nuclear waste.

Safe guarding nuclear materials The big idea is that “they guard potatoes better.” There is a Bulletin of Atomic Scientists article with that title. The key ideas are: While this article applied to the submarine fleet near Murmansk, it was a key challenge when the Soviet Union dissolved. Criminal conspiracy between insiders and outsiders.

Mayak’s walking wounded OPENNESS CHANGED FROM THE LAST OF THE GORBACHEV ERA While I was there, I was met with complete openness on the part of various officials and the heads of the nuclear enterprise. I visited most of the plants and the reactors in the Mayak industrial complex, and I was permitted to take photos and videotapes. Arrangements were made for me to interview a number of experts and specialists.   THE CONSEQUENCES OF ABSOLUTE SECRECY But I understood their reluctance to talk. After five decades of maintaining absolute secrecy about everything to do with the plutonium production process, it had never occurred to them to talk about it. Even people who were employed at the same plant never spoke about their work outside the workplace.

THE CLAIM OF A SOVIET ERA NUCLEAR WORKER "Recent publications (and your book is no exception) say there were only three nuclear accidents at the Mayak facilities. In contrast, the administration of the nuclear complex keeps an official list that includes tens of nuclear accidents.   NUCLEAR WORKER ILLNESSES "But does it not seem strange to you that among the veterans of Mayak there are thousands of people with radiological illnesses? Neither number of accidents can explain the number of victims.  

Russian Dumping in the Arctic Ocean The Arctic Nuclear Challenge Released June 2001, the third Bellona report on the Northwest Russian nuclear crisis suggests solutions as well as giving further details on the current situation. Several projects are proposed, in order to solve the problems of further radioactive contamination and the ensuing adverse health effects to the people living in the Arctic areas.  The Russian Northern Fleet The Russian Northern Fleet is experiencing problems with its nuclear powered vessels and with the storage of spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste.

The persecution of Alexander Nikitin THE CHARGE OF HIGH TREASON In December 29, a city court in St. Petersburg acquitted Alexander Nikitin, a retired Russian naval captain, of high treason. Thus ended the first chapter in the Nikitin affair. Whether there will be subsequent chapters is not yet known.  SOVIET ERA SECRECY The Cold War nuclear arms race had many costs, many of which are found at naval facilities dotted along Russia's Arctic coast. With the end of the Cold War, Soviet-era secrecy was partially lifted and revelations about how the Northern Fleet dumped nuclear waste into the Arctic ocean caused an international outcry. 

Russian decommissioned submarines SOVIET POWERED SUBMARINES In Western capitals and military circles, the fate of ex-Soviet nuclear weapons is a matter of much debate. But little notice has been paid to another hazardous heritage of the Cold War: the large number of decommissioned Soviet nuclear-powered submarines. In the Russian Far East, dozens of these submarines, once thought to threaten Western navies, are now a threat to the environment. THE U.S. AND SOVIET COLD WAR LEGACY Both the United States and the Soviet Union launched nuclear-powered fleets in the 1950s. Although the U.S. Navy commissioned the first nuclear submarine in 1954, the Soviet Union consistently outbuilt the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s. By 1990, the Soviet Navy had launched almost 230 nuclear submarines; the United States about 170.

WHAT SOULD BE DONE WITH NUCLEAR WASTE Many Soviet submarines have now reached the end of their useful life. Between mid-1989 and 1993, over 80 Russian nuclear submarines were removed from service. Arms control treaties and continuing economic problems will force the retirement of nearly 80 more by the year 2000. Most of these submarines contain two nuclear reactors, leaving about 300 reactors to be disposed of. WITHOUT A THOUGHT TO THE FUTURE Russian naval officers say these submarines "were built without a thought to the future," with little planning for their retirement. As a result, the many submarines that have been withdrawn from service have overwhelmed the Russian Navy's limited funds and capacity for processing them. Russia faces an acute problem at every step of the way--from the removal of the fuel, to the scrapping of the submarines, to the safe disposal of the radioactive reactor vessels.

Moral question Is there any moral difference between America at Rocky Flats and Hanford, and Russia at Chelyabinsk and with the nuclear fleet? Yes No