
The Techa is an eastward river on the eastern flank of the southern
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
noted for its nuclear contamination. It is long, and its basin covers .
It begins by the once-secret nuclear processing town of
Ozyorsk
Ozyorsk (russian: Озёрск) or Ozersk () is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.
;Urban localities
* Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast
* Ozyorsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, a town in Ozyorsky District of Kalin ...
about northwest of
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...
and flows east then northeast to the small town of
Dalmatovo to flow into the mid-part of the
Iset, a tributary of the
Tobol
The Tobol (russian: Тобол, kk, Тобыл ''Tobyl'') is a river in Western Siberia (in Kazakhstan and Russia) and the main (left) tributary of the Irtysh. Its length is , and the area of its drainage basin is .
History
The Tobol River was ...
. Its basin is close to and north of the
Miass
Miass ( rus, Миа́сс, p=mʲɪˈas) is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located west of Chelyabinsk, on the eastern slope of the Southern Ural Mountains, on the bank of the river Miass. Population:
Name
The name Miass is taken from ...
, longer than these rivers apart from the Tobol.
Water pollution
From 1949 to 1956 the
Mayak
The Mayak Production Association (russian: Производственное объединение «Маяк», , from 'lighthouse') is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation, housing a reprocessing plant. The closest ...
complex
Techa River
dumped an estimated of radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weap ...
water into the Techa River,[CHELYABINSK "The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet" – a documentary film by Slawomir Grunberg – Log In Productions – distributed by LogTV LTD](_blank)
/ref> a cumulative dispersal of of radioactivity.
As many as forty villages, with a combined population of about 28,000 residents, lined the river at the time. For 24 of them, the Techa was a major source of water; 23 of them were eventually evacuated. In the past 45 years, about half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents, exposing them to as much as 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor, reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainia ...
victims.
The Tobol is a sub-tributary of the Ob, being linked by the final part of the Irtysh
The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'er ...
; all three flow generally north.
See also
*Pollution of Lake Karachay
Lake Karachay, located in the southern Ural Mountains in eastern Russia, was a dumping ground for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapon facilities. It was also affected by a string of accidents and disasters causing the surrounding areas to be highl ...
* Water pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Wate ...
* Plutopia
* Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast
Ozyorsk or Ozersk (russian: Озёрск) is a closed city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The population was: Law #287-ZO specifies that the borders of Ozyorsky Urban Okrug match the borders of the closed administrative-territorial formation ...
* Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Semipalatinsk Test Site (Russian: Семипалатинск-21; Semipalatinsk-21), also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan (then t ...
References
{{Authority control
Rivers of Chelyabinsk Oblast
Rivers of Kurgan Oblast
Nuclear accidents and incidents
Water pollution in Russia
Disasters in the Soviet Union
Radioactive waste
Waste disposal incidents
1949 disasters in the Soviet Union
1956 disasters in the Soviet Union
1940s disasters in the Soviet Union
1950s disasters in the Soviet Union