Radiation accidents at the lighthouse. Kyshtym accident. Explosion of a container with nuclear waste at the Mayak plant (1957)

Background. "Kyshtym accident"- this was the very first man-made emergency in the USSR associated with radiation. The accident occurred on September 29, 1957 at the Mayak chemical plant. The chemical plant was located in the then closed city of Chelyabinsk-40. Then this city was renamed Ozyorsk. The accident was called Kyshtym because the city of Ozyorsk (Chelyabinsk-40) was strictly classified and could not be found on any map of the country until 1990. And Kyshtym is the closest city to it.

For a long time, nothing was reported about this accident in the Soviet Union. The official authorities carefully concealed information from the population of the country and residents of the Ural region, who found themselves in a zone of severe radioactive contamination. However, it was not possible to completely hide the accident of 1957, and even this became impossible - due to the huge area of ​​radiation contamination, as well as the involvement of a large number of people in the process of post-accident work, who then dispersed throughout the entire territory of the USSR.

You can find out more about the accident on the Internet - there are many materials that tell in great detail about the scale of the incident and the liquidation of the consequences. We will only provide data on the contamination of the territory - for the information of vacationers in the Chelyabinsk region.

East Ural Nature Reserve. On April 29, 1966, the East Ural Nature Reserve was organized in the EURT zone, which is located in the Kunashak and Kasli regions. The reserve covers an area of ​​about 16.6 thousand hectares. The purpose of creating this reserve is to conduct comprehensive research on issues of radioecology, as well as solving the problems of restoring flora and fauna within the territory of radioactive contamination.

Nowadays, more than forty years after the beginning of observations, a lot of information has already been accumulated on the processes that occur in living organisms under conditions of constant exposure to radiation. For example, since the day of the accident, more than 200 generations of field mice have already changed on the territory of the reserve, and scientists are constantly monitoring them.

Over the past years, the radioactive background in the zone EURT has decreased significantly, but has not yet returned to normal levels. In addition, the reserve also performs an environmental function - on its territory, one might say, the standard community of the Trans-Ural forest-steppe has already been restored and is being preserved. Besides, poachers are unlikely to go there!

Kyshtym accident 1957 (photo current state the area in which it occurred is presented below) - an emergency situation that occurred at the Mayak chemical plant in Chelyabinsk-40. Currently this city is called Ozersk. The former name was previously used only in secret documents. In this regard, the disaster began to be called “Kyshtym”. This name comes from the city closest to Chelyabinsk-40, indicated on the maps.

Kyshtym accident: photo, scale

An explosion at a chemical plant occurred in a tank built in the 1950s. Activities for its construction were carried out under the leadership of Ch. mechanic Arkady Kazutov. At that time, the chief engineer was V. Saprykin. The containers for storing radioactive waste were cylinders made of stainless steel and placed in concrete “jackets.” There were no doubts about the strength of the structure. On September 29, 1957, the cooling system failed. This resulted in the explosion of a container containing about 80 m 3 of nuclear waste. The structure was completely destroyed. The concrete floor, which was 1 m thick and weighed 160 tons, was thrown aside. As a result, about 20 million curies of radioactive compounds entered the atmosphere. Some of them rose to a height of about 2 km. A cloud of solid and liquid aerosols formed. Within 10-12 hours from the moment the Kyshtym accident occurred, toxic substances fell over a distance of 300-350 kilometers to the northeast. The contamination zone included several chemical plant enterprises, a military camp, a prison colony, a fire department, and an area of ​​23 thousand square meters. km with a population of 270 thousand people. in 217 settlements of three regions: Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk. Ozersk itself was not directly damaged. 90% of compounds fell on the territory of Mayak. The remaining substances dispersed further.

Liquidation

Considering the scale to which the Kyshtym accident 1957, consequences were very serious. 23 villages from the most contaminated areas of the territory with a population of 10-12 people were immediately resettled. Livestock, property, and buildings were destroyed. To prevent the spread of radiation, a sanitary protection zone was created in 1959. It was installed on the most contaminated part, where any economic activity. In 1968, the East Ural Nature Reserve was formed in this area. Today this zone has received a specific name. It is called the East Ural Nuclear Trace. After it happened Kyshtym accident, consequences liquidated hundreds of thousands of employees and civilians. All of them received significant doses of radiation.

Kyshtym accident: briefly about the chronology of events

The main distribution of compounds occurred in September. On the 29th, an explosion was recorded in tank No. 14 in the S-3 complex. Around seven o'clock in the evening, air masses from the chemical plant area moved to the village of Bagaryak and the city of Kamensk-Uralsky. At about 22-00 the cloud reached Tyumen. At 23:00 a glow was noticed in the sky. His main colors were light blue and pink. The glow first covered most of the northeastern and southwestern parts of the sky. Subsequently, the phenomenon was observed in the northwest. At 3 a.m. on September 30, the radioactive trace was completely formed. At 4 a.m., a rough assessment of the level of infestation was made at the industrial site. On September 30, a study of the radiation situation outside the chemical plant and Chelyabinsk-40 began.

October

On the third day after it happened Kyshtym accident 1957, a commission arrived from Moscow. Minister Slavsky was appointed its head. Having arrived at the scene, the commission knew the approximate damage it had caused Kyshtym accident. Causes, according to which it occurred, were the main goal of the group’s work. However, on the spot it became clear that the situation with the explosion of cans was very difficult. It was necessary to study many aspects of the problem. From October 6 to October 13, based on a preliminary assessment of the radiation dose, it was decided to evacuate 1,100 people. from the villages of Galikaevo, Saltykovo and Berdyanish. The resettlement of people was carried out with a significant delay - 1-2 weeks after the disaster. On October 11, a special commission was formed. She was tasked with finding out the causes of the accident. The commission consisted of 11 people. Fomin was appointed as chairman. He was a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Results

A commission created immediately after the K Yshtym accident 1957, conducted a survey of the area and identified settlements located in the zone of intense pollution. More than 4.5 thousand people were resettled from Russkaya Karabolka, Yugo-Konevo, Alabuga and the tungsten mine village. In addition, about 25 thousand hectares of land were plowed. In 1958-1959, the burial and liquidation of fodder, people's property, buildings, and food was carried out. After the disaster, a temporary ban on economic activity was introduced in the pollution zone. Damage from Kyshtym accident 1957 was very significant. Great amount people were forced to leave their places of permanent residence. Many people did not want to leave. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Kyshtym radioactive accident caused enormous environmental damage to the area. Hazardous substances found their way into water bodies and soil, and forests and arable lands were contaminated.

Official version of the incident

It should be said that for quite a long time Kyshtym accident was kept secret. Only in 1989 the fact of the disaster was confirmed at a session of the USSR Supreme Council. The official version of the incident provided the following data. The complex to which the exploded bank belonged was built in the form of a concrete structure with cells. The latter were canyons for 300 cc tanks. m. Highly radioactive liquid waste from the Mayak plant was stored in them. These compounds have the ability to intensely release heat. In this regard, the containers must be constantly cooled. The failure of the system, as the commission concluded, was due to corrosion. As a result, cooling was stopped. This caused independent heating of the compounds in the container. The jar contained nitrate-acetate waste. Kyshtym accident occurred due to the evaporation of water, drying of the residue and heating of the compounds to a temperature of about 330-350 degrees. The power of the explosion was estimated at 70-100 tons of trinitrotoluene.

Another version

According to other sources, Kyshtym accident occurred as a result of the addition of plutonium oxalate to the evaporator tank, which contained a hot solution of plutonium nitrate. During the oxidation of the latter, energy was released in large quantities. This led to the container overheating and exploding. The bank, located at a depth (about 8 meters), completely collapsed, the concrete slab was thrown 25 meters away. Glass flew out in buildings within a kilometer radius. No other damage was recorded. No one died directly from the explosion itself. If we talk about emissions, then Kyshtym accident was, of course, not on the same scale as Chernobyl. For comparison, in the latter case approximately 380 million curies were released into the air, which is about 19 times higher than in Ozersk.

Disinformation

As mentioned above, the fact of the disaster was kept secret by the Soviet government. However, the population needed to be told something. Therefore, almost immediately after the disaster, a note was published in Chelyabinsk Rabochy (a local newspaper). It spoke of a special glow in the sky as a phenomenon that has signs of the northern lights. In fact, this phenomenon was described in the publication. The article ended with the words that such a phenomenon is possible in the future at the South Ural latitudes.

Publications abroad

Despite all the attempts of the Soviet government to hide the fact of the disaster, it still became known. This was primarily due to the enormous scale of pollution. In addition, many people were involved in eliminating the consequences, who then dispersed to different regions of the country. As for other countries, the fact of the disaster became known to them quite quickly. A Copenhagen newspaper was the first to write about the accident in 1958. However, the publication provided inaccurate data. The article stated that the accident occurred during nuclear testing. The date of the disaster was also inaccurate. The newspaper said March 1958. The nature of the disaster was not known abroad. However, the Copenhagen newspaper said that the accident led to radioactive fallout on the territory of the USSR and neighboring countries. A little later, a report from the American National Laboratory suggested that a nuclear explosion occurred during military exercises in the Soviet Union. 20 years later, in 1976, Zhores Medvedev published short message in "New Scientist" (English magazine), which caused a wide resonance in the West. 3 years after this, he published a book that provided some reliable facts about the incident. In 1980, a publication by scientists from Oak Ridge (American atomic center) appeared. For the first time since Medvedev, experts admitted that a catastrophe had indeed occurred in the Soviet Union. It should be noted that the Mayak incident is the first radiation accident in the USSR. Oak Ridge specialists analyzed the information geographical maps before and after the incident. Scientists have found that the names of some settlements have disappeared. In addition, they noticed that in the lower reaches of the river. During the leaks, canals and reservoirs were built.

Recognition of the incident by the authorities

As mentioned above, the fact of the disaster was first officially confirmed at a meeting of the Supreme Council in 1989. Subsequently, the Committees on Ecology and Health held joint hearings on this issue. Deputy Minister of Industry and Nuclear Energy Nikipelov spoke at the meeting. In November 1989, the world scientific community was familiarized with information about the circumstances, characteristics, and consequences of the accident at an IAEA symposium. Specialists from the Mayak chemical plant itself spoke at the meetings.

Additionally

Among the comments of eyewitnesses, the words of Mayak PA veteran V. Shevchenko are of interest. He said that for a long time, few people in the country, and especially abroad, knew about the disaster for a long time. Shevchenko denies any connection with the city of Kyshtym. He says that the disaster had nothing to do with the city. Publications containing information about what happened accident at the Kyshtym nuclear power plant, unreliable. It is worth saying that an obelisk dedicated to the disaster was built in this city.

Actions of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region

In the summer of 2011, the regional leadership posted a request for quotes for the provision of services. It included a rather specific requirement. In accordance with it, according to the first ten links in the Yandex and Google search engines for queries relating to the Kyshtym disaster and environmental problems Karabash, there must be materials that include either positive or neutral information and assessments of the situation. Representatives of the regional administration, commenting on their actions, spoke of the need to get rid of the image imposed by “radiophobes”, which has long become irrelevant and does not correspond to reality. In addition, the regional leadership reported that they did not plan to distort information about the environmental situation. Experts involved in search engine optimization considered the method chosen by the regional authorities to be ineffective. By the spring of 2012, the regional administration completely abandoned it. Instead, the regional authorities decided to use such traditional instruments, such as publishing articles and advertising messages in local print media.

Creation of a reserve

To prevent the dangerous impact of the contaminated territory on the population living in the immediate vicinity of the disaster site, in 1959 the Soviet government decided to form a sanitary protection zone within the boundaries of the East Ural radioactive trace, in which a special regime was in effect. It included an area limited by an isoline of 2-4 curies per 1 sq. km for strontium-90. Its area was about 700 square meters. km. Land within this zone was classified as temporarily unsuitable for agricultural activities. On the territory it is prohibited to use forest and land lands, water bodies, cut down trees, plow up plots, mow grass, graze livestock, pick berries and mushrooms, and fish. To enter this area, you must obtain a special permit. In 1968, a reserve was formed in this part of the territory. Due to the radioactive decay of compounds deposited as a result of the Kyshtym accident, the area of ​​contamination in the territory is decreasing. Today, visiting the reserve is prohibited. There is still a high level of radioactive contamination on its territory, and staying there is very dangerous for humans. Meanwhile, the nuclear reserve is of great practical importance. Various studies are being carried out on its territory. Today, persons injured as a result of the accident, citizens who participated in the liquidation of its consequences, have various social benefits.

Conclusion

Of course, any activity related to radioactive compounds carries with it high risk. Before the disaster, no one thought that something irreparable could happen. Rules for working at high-risk facilities require constant monitoring of the condition of equipment and critical structures. However, it is not always possible to completely eliminate the risk even with the most careful supervision. The Kyshtym accident caused enormous damage to the region's agriculture. Large areas of arable land are still unsuitable for cultivation. Many lost their homes and property; animals, food supplies, and feed were destroyed. This disaster should undoubtedly force all persons involved in activities at hazardous sites to be even more vigilant. After all, no fines for the perpetrators or benefits for the victims will be able to restore health lost as a result of man-made disasters, or restore the state of ecosystems disturbed due to the toxic effects of emissions.

Accident September 29, 1957 (Sunday) 16 hours 22 minutes local time. An explosion occurred in can 14 of the S-3 complex. Due to the failure of the cooling system, an explosion occurred in a tank with a volume of 300 cubic meters, which contained about 80 m³ of highly radioactive nuclear waste. The explosion, estimated at tens of tons of TNT equivalent, destroyed the tank, a 1-meter-thick concrete floor weighing 160 tons was thrown aside, and about 20 million curies of radiation were released into the atmosphere. Some of the radioactive substances were raised by the explosion to a height of 1-2 km and formed a cloud consisting of liquid and solid aerosols. Within hours, radioactive substances fell over a distance of kilometers in the northeast direction from the explosion site (in the direction of the wind). The zone of radiation contamination included the territory of several enterprises of the Mayak plant, a military camp, a fire station, a prison colony, and then an area of ​​sq. km. with a population of people in 217 settlements of three regions: Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen.

During the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, 23 villages from the most contaminated areas with a population of 10 to 12 thousand people were resettled, and buildings, property and livestock were destroyed. To prevent the spread of radiation, in 1959, by decision of the government, a sanitary protection zone was formed on the most contaminated part of the radioactive trace, where all economic activities were prohibited, and since 1968, the East Ural Region was formed on this territory state reserve. Now the contamination zone is called the East Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT).

Official reason disaster “The disruption of the cooling system due to corrosion and failure of control equipment in one of the containers of the radioactive waste storage facility, with a volume of 300 cubic meters, caused self-heating of tons of high-level waste stored there, mainly in the form of nitrate-acetate compounds. The evaporation of water, drying of the residue and heating it to a temperature of degrees led to an explosion of the contents of the container on September 29, 1957 at 16:00 local time. The power of the explosion is estimated in tons of trinitrotoluene.”

East Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT) The total length of the EURT was approximately 300 km in length, with a width of 5-10 kilometers. On this area of ​​almost 20 thousand square meters. km. About 270 thousand people lived, of which about 10 thousand people ended up in areas with a density of radioactive contamination of over 2 curies per square kilometer for strontium-90 and 2100 people with a density of over 100 curies per square kilometer. The territory of more than 2 curies per square kilometer for strontium-90 included approximately 23 settlements, mostly small villages. EURT included a territory bounded by an isoline of two four curies per square kilometer for strontium-90, with an area of ​​about 700 square meters. km. The lands of this zone are recognized as temporarily unsuitable for Agriculture. It is prohibited here to use land and forest lands, and water bodies, to plow and sow, to cut down forests, to cut hay and graze livestock, to hunt, fish, and pick mushrooms and berries. No one is allowed here without special permission.

Elimination of the consequences of the accident Young men from the nearest cities of Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg were mobilized for liquidation, without warning them of the danger. Entire military units were brought in to cordon off the contaminated area. Then the soldiers were forbidden to say where they were. Young children aged 7-13 years old were sent from villages to bury radioactive crops (it was autumn outside). The Mayak plant even used pregnant women for liquidation work. In the Chelyabinsk region and the city of nuclear workers after the accident, mortality increased, people died right at work, freaks were born, entire families died out.

Lake of Death In 1967 due to early spring and hot summer, the water level in the lakes dropped significantly and their bottoms were exposed. The dust storm, which lasted for two weeks, lifted the bottom sediments of Lake Karachay into the air with 600 thousand Ci of radioactivity, which led to the contamination of another 2.7 thousand km2 (pollution density above 0.1 Ci/km2). Radioactive dust covered 63 settlements, where 41.5 thousand people lived; people from the near zone of the trace received an average of 1.3 rem due to external irradiation; 18 thousand people were resettled.

Consequences Chelyabinsk doctor N.N. Abramova said that over the past year and a half, 150 people have died in Tatar Karabolka, and over the past 25 years - one and a half thousand. Today, 400 people live in the village of Tatarskaya Karabolka, one third of them are paralyzed, almost all have cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, everyone suffers from gastrointestinal diseases, joint pain, some are amputees. In the village there are often disabled children with Down syndrome and crazy people.

Mortality The Expanded Techa River Cohort includes people born before 1950 and living on the banks of the river during any time interval between 1950 and 1960. For most individuals included in this cohort, information is available on vital status and causes of death. A dose-dependent increase in cancer mortality among cohort members was established. Preliminary estimates of the radiation risk of malignant neoplasms based on mortality data are presented. The analysis included deaths from malignant tumors and 61 deaths from leukemia. Calculations show that about 2.5% of deaths from malignant tumors and 63% of deaths from leukemia in this cohort are associated with exposure to ionizing radiation

Eyewitness testimony. Nadezhda Kutepova, daughter of a liquidator, Ozersk My father was 17 years old and he studied at a technical school in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). On September 30, 1957, he and his other fellow students were loaded directly from classes into trucks and brought to Mayak to eliminate the consequences of the accident. They were not told anything about the seriousness of the dangers of radiation. They worked for days. They were given individual dosimeters, but were punished for overdosing, so many people left dosimeters in their clothing drawers so as not to “overdose.” In 1983, he fell ill with cancer, he was operated on in Moscow, but he began to metastasize throughout the body, and 3 years later he died. We were told then that it was not from the accident, but then this disease was officially recognized as a consequence of the accident at Mayak. My grandmother also participated in the liquidation of the accident and officially received a large dose. I never saw her because she died of lymphatic cancer long before I was born, 8 years after the accident.

Eyewitness testimony Gulshara Ismagilova, resident of the village of Tatarskaya Karabolka I was 9 years old, and we were in school. One day they gathered us and told us that we would harvest the crops. It was strange to us that instead of harvesting the crops, we were forced to bury them. And there were policemen standing around, they were guarding us so that no one would run away. In our class, most of the students later died of cancer, and those who remained are very sick, the women suffer from infertility.

Eyewitness testimony Natalya Smirnova, resident of Ozersk I remember that there was terrible panic in the city at that time. Cars drove along all the streets and washed the roads. They told us on the radio that we should throw away everything that was in our houses that day and constantly wash the floor. Many people, Mayak workers, then fell ill with acute radiation sickness; everyone was afraid to say or ask anything under the threat of dismissal or even arrest.

Eyewitness testimony Rizvan Khabibullin, resident of the village of Tatarskaya Karabolka (Quote from the book by F. Bayramova “Nuclear Archipelago”, Kazan, 2005.) On September 29, 1957, we, students of the Karabolskaya secondary school, were harvesting root crops in the fields of the collective farm named after. Zhdanova. At about 4 p.m., everyone heard a roar from somewhere in the west and felt a gust of wind. In the evening a strange fog descended on the field. We, of course, did not suspect anything and continued to work. The work continued in the following days. A few days later, for some reason, we were forced to destroy root crops that had not yet been exported... By winter, I began to have terrible headaches. I remember how I rolled on the floor in exhaustion, how my temples were tightened like a hoop, my nose was bleeding, I practically lost my sight.

The struggle Residents who live near the plant have been trying to stop its work for many years; constant trials do not give any result. A special society has been created that is fighting for the resettlement of residents from the radioactive zone. But unfortunately, everything is unsuccessful, the chemical plant continues to operate and discharges its radioactive waste into the Techa River.

Literature: Website “Ural Chernobyl: tragedy of the Tatars” “Chernobyl lessons” Information and analytical agency “Antiatom.ru” html html Approximate area of ​​the East Ural radioactive trace c737c32f5478c4e c737c32f5478c4e Article about the Kyshtym tragedy and its consequences on the Greenpeace report:

East Ural radioactive trace (EURT), territory, polluted in 1957 by radioactive substances as a result of a radiation accident at the Mayak chemical plant. As a result of an emergency release (explosion of a storage tank for high-level liquid radioactive waste from radiochemical production), radionuclides were scattered over parts of the territory. Chel., Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions. stripe wide 20-40 km and a length of up to 300 km. Original in the radionuclide composition of contaminants. terr. short-lived cerium-144 (144 Ce) and zirconium-95 95 Zr) predominated - in total more than 90% of all beta activity; in a smaller step, contained strontium-90 + yttrium-90 (90 Sr + 90 Y) - 5.4%, ruthenium-106 (106 Ru) - 3.7% and cesium-137 (137 Cs) - 0.35%. The short-lived radionuclides that formed the radiation environment after the accident almost completely decayed in the first 5 years. Strontium-90 (90 Sr) was taken as a reference radionuclide (determining the radiation and radioecological situation). Terr. the spread of an emergency release (against the background of existing pollution, caused by nuclear tests in the atmosphere before 1957) was delineated by the density of soil contamination 90Sr 3.7 kBq/m 2, or 0.1 Ku/km 2 (twice the global background value, or minimum detectable contamination level at that time is 90 Sr). Territory area with pollution densities above this level amounted to approx. 20 thousand km 2. The overall management of the work to eliminate the consequences of the accident in the EURT zone was carried out by Sov. Min. USSR and executive committees and Sverdlovsk region. Terr. area approx. 1000 km 2 (approximately 5% of the entire EURT area) received the official status of radioactively contaminated. [the density of 90 Sr contamination here was St. 74 kBq/m2 (2 Ku/km2)]. In the first 2 years after the accident, residents were resettled. 24 pop. points (12,763 people), an exclusion zone was formed where any household activity was prohibited. activity The boundaries of the zone are taken under the protection of departments and the police, and sanitary-epidemiological control has been established. services for compliance with the requirements of the sanitary radiation regime. Depending on the density of pollution of the territory. and time of residence (before moving out) effective dose of combined radiation max., irradiation. age group(children 1-2 years old at the time of the accident) ranged from 0.4 to 150 c3v. In 1958-59, decontamination of part of the territory was carried out, withdrawn from the household. use (approx. 20 thousand hectares of agricultural land), by plowing. On the territory former inhabitants points were destroyed with the help of earth-moving equipment and buried in the trenches of the structure. On the site of some villages, after leveling the surface, pine trees were planted. In March 1958, scientific and technical. The Council of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building considered the proposal of Academician. V. M. Kleinovsky on the study and search of the paths of creatures, weakening the influence of radioactive contamination on agriculture. production The Ministry of Medium Machine Building, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR initiated research, directed. to search for opportunities for agricultural restoration. pr-va on from-alien. terr. in order to reduce the cost. damage and receipt of agricultural products products containing 90 Sr not exceeding permissible levels. This activity served as the basis for the organization in 1958 of the Experimental Research Station of the Mayak Production Association. Based on the joint station. with scientists Moscow. agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev, Moscow State University, Soil Science Institute. V.V. Dokuchaeva, Agrophys. Institute of VASKhNIL, Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and its branches (FIB-1 and FIB-4) began comprehensive research. under general scientific under the leadership of Klechkovsky. Already by 1960–61, experiments had proven the possibility of restoring agricultural pr-va. In 1961 in Chel. region the first 5 specialists were created. state farms (in the Sverdlovsk region - 2). By 1982 in households. use involved 87 thousand hectares (82%) of alienation. lands [pollution density 90 Sr 74-150 kBq/m2 (2-4 Ku/km 2)], of which 41 thousand hectares are agricultural. land (16 thousand hectares in the Chel. region and 25 thousand hectares in the Sverdlovsk region). The remaining 19 thousand hectares (the most contaminated part of the EURT) are allocated to the East Ural Nature Reserve. Objects natural environment on the territory EURTs were therefore exposed to radiation. However, due to the stability of many species of plants and animals susceptible to radiation, a relatively small area of ​​the territory, where severe damage or death of local species occurred, as well as the high speed of restoration processes of natural populations, communities and biocenoses, the radiation damage caused to wildlife turned out to be insignificant . Scientific research showed that, despite the presence of radiation genetic. effects from dep. species of plants and animals living on the territory. EURT, this does not pose a danger to the further existence of natural populations.