Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It had a population of 82,164 as of the 2010 census.
History
The town was founded on the shores of Lake Irtyash in 1947. Until 1994, it was known as Chelyabinsk-65, and even earlier, as Chelyabinsk-40. Codenamed City 40, Ozyorsk was the birthplace of the Soviet nuclear weapons program launched after the Second World War. Ozyorsk and Richland in the US were the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium for use in Cold War atomic bombs. In 1994, it was granted town status and renamed Ozyorsk.Kyshtym disaster
In 1957, the Mayak plant was the site of a major disaster, releasing more radioactive contamination than the meltdown at Chernobyl. An improperly stored underground tank of high-level liquid nuclear waste exploded, contaminating thousands of square kilometres of territory, now known as the Eastern Ural Radioactive Trace. The matter was quietly and secretly covered up, and few either inside or outside Russia were aware of the full scope of the disaster until 1980.Before the 1957 accident, much of the waste was dumped into the Techa River, causing severe contamination and negatively affecting residents of dozens of riverside villages including Ozyorsk. After the 1957 accident, dumping in the Techa River officially ceased. In addition to the radioactive risks, the airborne lead and particulate soot levels in Ozyorsk are also very high—roughly equal to the levels encountered along busy roadsides in the era predating unleaded gasoline and catalytic converters—due to the presence of numerous lead smelters.
On Sunday September 29, 1957 at 4:22 pm, in the production association "Mayak" in Ozyorsk one of the containers exploded, in which high-level waste was kept. The explosion completely destroyed a stainless steel container located in a concrete canyon 8.2 meters deep. In total, there were 14 containers in the canyon. One tenth of the radioactive substances were lifted into the air. After the explosion, a column of smoke and dust rose up to a kilometer high, the dust flickered with an orange-red light and settled on buildings and people. The rest of the waste discarded from the tank remained at the industrial site. Reactor plants got into the contamination zone.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, it has, together with six rural localities, official status as the Town of Ozyorsk—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of Ozyorsk has the official name Ozyorsky Urban Okrug.Economy
Ozyorsk has been closed because of its proximity to the Mayak plant, one of the sources of Soviet plutonium during the Cold War, and now a Russian facility for processing nuclear waste and recycling nuclear material from decommissioned nuclear weapons.The town's coat of arms depicts a flame-colored salamander resting on a stylized reactor block submerged in water. Southern-Urals Construction Department is another major enterprise. Its activities include construction for atomic industry needs, production of concrete constructions and construction materials.