What might be evidence of a nuclear accident is an unexplained high level of Ruthenium 106, a man-made isotope, detected in the atmosphere by a
French nuclear safety institute and a Danish monitoring station in
October, emanating from the southern Urals. The existence of high
levels of the isotope was only confirmed by Russian meteorological
authorities recently.They deny that the source comes from one of their country's nuclear facilities. However, high on the list of suspects is the former plutonium production facility at Mayak, Chelyabinsk-65 (re-named Ozyorsk). It was responsible for the third largest release of radioactivity in history when a waste water tank exploded on September 29, 1957 releasing radioactivity over 20,000 square kilometers. [see map above] Entire villages had to be bulldozed to contain the contamination. In the village of Korabolka, three hundred of its five thousand inhabitants died of radiation poisoning within a few days of the event. Ethnic Russians were evacuated and their half of the village razed, but ethnic Tartars were left behind. Was this a blatant form of racism, or did they became a living experiment in the effects of nuclear fallout? Remaining villagers believe the latter is true. At least 270,000 people in the region were exposed to high levels of radiation. Residents are still living with the explosion's deadly aftermath, suffering high rates of birth defects and radiation-related illnesses such as cancer. What remains of Korabolka, now called Tatarskaya Korabolka, has a cancer rate five times that of uncontaminated villages. The explosion and fallout was kept secret for 32 years.
A Russian anti-nuclear activist, now living in France, Nadezhda Kutepova, testified to French officials in 2017 that Mayak is probably the source of the plume since the facility tested new equipment on the 25th and 26th of September. On 22nd September a train transported used fuel from a VVER 1000 light-water reactor for disposal. [photos here] This was an entirely new combustible for Mayak, and radioactive alarms were set off on the same days according to Kutepova, who advocated for victims of the first Mayak disaster. The director of the facility refused to comment on these events to journalists, except to say there is no Ruthenium 106 at his facility. Later, Russian officials backtracked on the statement saying there were small releases of the isotope, but well below acceptable limits. The French institute for nuclear safety calculated the release at 300 Terrabequerels, or about 375,000 times the limit permitted French reactors. French nuclear experts say that Ruthenium 106 can be produced during a vitrification process in the volatile form of RuO₄, which when contacted with air, creates aerosols of RuO₂.
Mayak is owned by Rosatom, a state monopoly, eager to take over the role of world provider of nuclear power reactors from defunct Westinghouse. Mayak therefore has no independent monitoring of its operations. The last thing the company wants at this point is another nuclear disaster to explain away. The province of Cheyalbinsk, the site for nuclear production and waste facilities since the end of WWII, has been declared the most polluted place on the planet.