Udachny ( rus, Удачный, p=ʊˈdatɕnɨj, lit. ''successful'' or ''lucky''; sah, Удачнай, ''Udaçnay'') is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Mirninsky District Mirninsky District (russian: Ми́рнинский район; sah, Мирнэй улууһа, ''Mirney uluuha'') is an administrativeConstitution of the Sakha Republic, Article 45 and municipalLaw #172-Z #351-III district ( raion, or ''ulus ...

of the

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far E ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, located on the Markha River, from Mirny, the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

of the district. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 12,613.

History

The

Udachnaya pipe The Udachnaya pipe (russian: тру́бка Уда́чная, literally ''lucky pipe'') is a diamond deposit in the Daldyn- Alakit kimberlite field in Sakha Republic, Russia. It is an open-pit mine, and is located just outside the Arctic ...

diamond deposit was discovered in 1955. Due to its isolated location, it was not exploited until the 1960s. In conjunction with the beginnings of diamond production, the

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

of Udachny was founded in 1968; town status was granted to it in 1987.''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic'' As part of a plan to create the basin for a tailings dam for the nearby diamond mine, a 1.7

kiloton TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a ...

atomic bomb was detonated underground near Udachny on October 2, 1974. Original plans had called for eight similar explosions to be conducted; however, due to radioactive fallout being far greater than expected, the project was halted after the first blast. The shaft in which the explosion was held was not plugged until eighteen years later, with an estimated thick concrete sarcophagus.Report on the underground explosion near Udachny in 1974 and its status in 2000

Administrative and municipal status

As an inhabited locality, Udachny is classified as a town under district jurisdiction. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with one rural locality (the '' selo'' of Polyarny), incorporated within

as the

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

of Udachny. As a municipal division, the Town of Udachny is incorporated within Mirninsky Municipal District as Udachny Urban Settlement.Law #173-Z #353-III

Economy

Diamond mining remains the principal economic activity in the town. Udachny is the second most important diamond production site after Mirny for the state-owned ALROSA corporation. It is served by

Polyarny Airport Polyarny Airport (russian: Аэропорт Полярный) (also Udachnaya or Poliarny) is an airport in Yakutia, Russia located 1 km west of Novy and about 12 km west of Udachny. It services all types of aircraft. The airfield is ...

12km outside of town.

Climate

Udachny has an extreme

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Dfd''). Winters are extremely cold, with average temperatures from to in January, while summers are mild, with average temperatures from to in July.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

is quite low, but is significantly higher in summer than at other times of the year.

References

Notes

Sources

*Official website of the Sakha Republic. ''Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic''
Mirninsky District
* {{Use mdy dates, date=March 2013 Cities and towns in the Sakha Republic Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Populated places established in 1968