Kyshtym

Kyshtym (English)
Кыштым (Russian)
-  Town  -

Church of the Nativity of Christ, Kyshtym
Kyshtym
Location of Kyshtym in Chelyabinsk Oblast
Coordinates: 55°42′N 60°33′E / 55.700°N 60.550°E / 55.700; 60.550Coordinates: 55°42′N 60°33′E / 55.700°N 60.550°E / 55.700; 60.550
Coat of arms
Administrative status (as of September 2011)
Country Russia
Federal subject Chelyabinsk Oblast
Administratively subordinated to Town of Kyshtym[1]
Administrative center of Town of Kyshtym[1]
Municipal status (as of September 2011)
Urban okrug Kyshtymsky Urban Okrug[1]
Administrative center of Kyshtymsky Urban Okrug[1]
Statistics
Population (2010 Census) 38,942 inhabitants[2]
Time zone YEKT (UTC+05:00)[3]
Founded 1757
Town status since 1934
Kyshtym on Wikimedia Commons

Kyshtym (Russian: Кышты́м) is a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains 90 kilometers (56 mi) northwest of Chelyabinsk, near the town of Ozyorsk. Population: 38,942 (2010 Census);[2] 41,929 (2002 Census);[4] 42,852 (1989 Census);[5] 36,000 (1970).

History

It was established by the Demidovs in 1757 around two factories for production of cast iron and steel. It was granted town status in 1934.

Administrative and municipal status

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with twelve rural localities, incorporated as the Town of Kyshtym—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[1] As a municipal division, the Town of Kyshtym is incorporated as Kyshtymsky Urban Okrug.[1]

Nuclear disaster

Main article: Kyshtym disaster

Kyshtym is near the Ozyorsk nuclear complex, also known as "Mayak" ("lighthouse" in Russian), where on September 29, 1957, a violent explosion involving dry nitrate and acetate salts in a waste tank containing highly radioactive waste, contaminated an area of more than 15,000 square kilometers (Ozyorsk was the town built around the Mayak combine, but it was a closed city, which was not marked on maps, thus making Kyshtym the nearest town to the location of the disaster). The explosion resulted from a failure of the cooling system of the tank.[6]

There was a release of 740 PBq of fission products, approximately 10% of which was dispersed into the atmosphere.[7] Cerium-144 and Zirconium-95 (both relatively short lived isotopes with a half life of 285 and 64 days respectively) made up 91% of the release. There was 1 PBq of Sr-90, and 13 TBq of Cs-137. The contaminated zone, called East Urals Radioactive Trace (EURT), measuring 300 x 50 km was contaminated by more than 4 kBq/m² of Sr-90. The global fallout of Sr-90 was about 2 kBq/m². An area measuring 17 km² was contaminated by about 100 MBq Sr-90/m².

There were 270,000 inhabitants of the area. Mass evacuation was carried out as the critical contamination resulted from Sr-90 with a half-life of 28.8 years. About 800 km² of land were taken out of use, and 82% of this area has now been taken into use again for forestry and farming. However, evacuation was limited to the nearest settlements leading to more than 1000 acknowledged victims. It was estimated in 1990 that at this time, around 10,000 people lived in areas where the level of ambient radiation was more than quadruple that of the average in Chernobyl's restricted area after 1986.[8]

The Kyshtym accident was largely concealed by the Soviet government until 1980, when the Soviet biologist Zhores Medvedev revealed its existence.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Resolution #161
  2. 1 2 Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). "Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1" [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года (2010 All-Russia Population Census) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  3. ↑ Правительство Российской Федерации. Федеральный закон №107-ФЗ от 3 июня 2011 г. «Об исчислении времени», в ред. Федерального закона №248-ФЗ от 21 июля 2014 г. «О внесении изменений в Федеральный закон "Об исчислении времени"». Вступил в силу по истечении шестидесяти дней после дня официального опубликования (6 августа 2011 г.). Опубликован: "Российская газета", №120, 6 июня 2011 г. (Government of the Russian Federation. Federal Law #107-FZ of June 31, 2011 On Calculating Time, as amended by the Federal Law #248-FZ of July 21, 2014 On Amending Federal Law "On Calculating Time". Effective as of after sixty days following the day of the official publication.).
  4. ↑ Russian Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек" [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  5. ↑ Demoscope Weekly (1989). "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров" [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Kyshtym accident" TED Case Studies: An Online Journal American University
  7. ↑ Jones (2007) Windscale and Kyshtym: a double anniversary Journal of Environmental radioactivity 99:1-6
  8. ↑ Eesti Ekspress 2 May 2009 9:29: Maailma kõige ohtlikum paik

Sources

External links

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