Why is the East Ural Nature Reserve surrounded by barbed wire?
The East Ural Nature Reserve is located near Chelyabinsk, but it's not the kind of reserve where unique plants and rare animals and birds are protected from humans. Here, it's the opposite: people are protected from radiation.
The reserve is the head of the East Ural radioactive trail, which was formed after the accident at Mayak on September 29, 1957.
The secret Mayak nuclear weapons plant was built post-war in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40. On September 29, 1957, a container containing high-level radioactive waste exploded. The explosion was so powerful that the 160-ton concrete lid covering the container was thrown tens of meters away. The amount of radioactive release was several times smaller than that during the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. However, an area of 23,000 square kilometers was contaminated—217 settlements, home to approximately 270,000 people. The event became known as the Kyshtym accident, named after the nearby settlement of Kyshtym.
The disaster was concealed from the public, and it wasn't until October 6th that a local newspaper published a story calling the red-orange smoke plume "a rare atmospheric phenomenon in these latitudes—the aurora borealis." That same day, the evacuation of the population began, houses and belongings were burned, livestock were slaughtered, and fields were plowed—these measures at least somewhat prevented the further spread of radionuclides. A sanitary protection zone was established in the contaminated area, on the site of which the East Ural Nature Reserve was established in 1966. The area is controlled by the Rosatom corporation and is closed to the public. Only scientists studying the impact of radiation on the environment are allowed into the reserve.
According to Experts say the radiation levels are low now, so walking around and even eating the mushrooms you pick here won't be harmful. However, living there or engaging in any economic activity is still prohibited.
The local Techa River also flows here, and it contains much higher levels of radiation. The Kyshtym disaster is not "to blame" in this case, as radioactive waste had been dumped into it even earlier, in the early 1950s. These discharges were both authorized and accidental. Swimming, fishing, and using this water for drinking or even industrial purposes are prohibited.
Currently, background radiation generated by strontium-90 and cesium-137 isotopes alone exceeds natural levels by two to four times. Two years from now, 70 years will have passed since the Kyshtym disaster. However, it will take another hundred years for the area to be completely cleared of radiation.
