Muslyumovo: A look inside
- UPDATE: Accident at Mayak leads to apparently contained radiation leak, and seriously injures one worker
- Russia’s president looks to eliminate social inequality – or does he?
- Resettling Muslyumovo to a Potemkin Village not a solution to ongoing ecological tragedy
- Radioactive material leaks during transport at Mayak - no one hurt, says plant
- Chelyabinsk Region residents still being irradiated 50 years on
- UPDATE: Muslyumovo residents remain Russia’s nuclear guinea pigs
- Techa-2006 competition hit by legal problems and environmentalists' doubts
- Tender to Solve the Mayak Problem
- Revoked License Grinds Mayak to a Halt
- Duma Deputy Mitrokhin to Fight for Evacuation of Mayak Area
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The main goal of Kiriyenko’s visit however, was to announce the government decision to the Yuzhnoural Nulcear Power Plant. Who knows how this experiment will turn out, especially since hundreds of people are still suffering from the effects of Mayak. Attempts to resolve these grievances through resettlement have not gone as planned; only a fraction of the remaining victims have moved to the new dwellings being constructed on the opposite bank of the radioactive Techa River.
The usual radiation
One of Mysyumovo’s former inhabitants agreed to take me there: “Only don’t act like a journalist––that way they won’t say anything” she advised. “Over the years they’ve grown tired of journalists. They come, take photographs, accept fees, and no good ever comes of it!”
From Chelyabinska we travel along the M5 towards YEkaterinberg. In about 40 kilometers we’ll turn onto the highway; from there its twenty kilometers to Myslyumovo. My guide explains, “This road was built in preparation for (former president Boris)Yeltsin’s visit. Before, you had to go through Kunashak (the regional center). He came, told us we had to resettle, and left. We didn’t resettle, and the road remained - meaning he came for nothing.”
At the very entrance to the town is a tree-lined walk, which serves to commemorate the victims of radiation. If not for the threatening yellow-black sign, you’d have no reason to guess you were entering a contaminated area. It’s just like any other village; there are no two-headed chickens, or mushrooms the size of mess tins, just the usual green grass and trees.
We approach the bank of the Techa River. There’s a decrepit wire fence, and a sign that reads "Hazardous Zone" in peeling paint. Here, in the flood plane of a radioactive river, stand rows of little houses. On one side of the river stands the town of Muslyumovo, on the other––the power station. The government is preparing to resettle the town, which simply means to move it from one bank to the other. They say that it's safe there. Maria Yermina, the press secretary for the Ministry of Construction, Industry, and Energy in Chelyabinsk Region, believes that both banks are now free of radiation - however, a 1994 document from the Russian government, still un-rescinded, states that the land surrounding the station and the town of Muslyumovo is dangerous to residents. She says the government is giving a gift to the people by moving them to new homes.
A million roubles 'for free'
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| Not all Muslyumovo residents are getting a new roof over their heads. To the contrary, many are losing their homes in old age. |
| Rashid Alimov/Bellona |
But not all of the original residents of Muslyumovo were chosen to receive a new roof over their heads. A few were overlooked on account of their old age. The history of what happened to Sharif Ibragimovoy, a native of the town, is not an uncommon one in Muslyumovo.
The residents of Muslyumovo are given a choice to move to a new house or to receive a million roubles for their old one. The proposal has attracted some “new owners” to Muslyumovo.
Sharif purchased her home in 1986 without a contract or the Soviet-era requirement of a residence book, but rather in the presence of witnesses. This was not atypical in Soviet times; village dwellers were often unaware of the proper documentation required for such transactions. Sharif lived in her home for 20 years, during which time nobody else showed any interest in it or claimed a legal right to ownership. When talk of resettlement began, Sharif, like all the remaining inhabitants of Muslyumovo, began to register her house. In March 2007, she received a "zelyonka" – a certificate of her right to ownership – and prepared to move to a new house.
But like honey on bread, 1 million roubles attract the type of people who have no qualms about chasing an old woman onto the street. The children of a certain Mr and Mrs. Yalalov, who lived in the Sharife home from 1969 to 1984, soon laid claim to it. They produced a document in court, which they claimed to be the original 1969 purchasing contract. As a result, the judge in Kunashaksoye Region ruled in favor of the Yalalovs, and Sharif was ordered to vacate the house. Sharif's neighbors and relatives suspect that the contract was a forgery. Why would the ‘new/old’ owners turn up now after 20 years of disinterest, just in time to receive their million rubles? Further proof that the contract was fabricated after the fact––the Yalalovs didn't have an archived copy. Now Sharif doesn't believe in justice.
Will there be a house-warming party?
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| Many children live in the area contaminated by Mayak. How the resettlement progresses will directly impact their futures. |
| Rashid Alimov/Bellona |
In official announcements, Rosatom has repeatedly stated that inhabitants of the contaminated area have until the end of 2007 to resettle. Yet, by the middle of September only nine foundations had been laid in the new town. The construction site resembles a scene from the last century: Everything is done by hand with saws, axes, and shovels. There is no working electricity, or construction equipment like cranes, excavators, or cement mixers. The quality of work seems to reflect this.
The foundations for the houses are as wide as a shovel and sunk fifteen centimeters into the soil. The wooden walls are 18 centimetres thick –– far too shallow for the severe Urals climate. The mortar for the foundations is mixed by hand right in the soil, so it's unlikely to add much sturdiness to the house - such a foundation will likely fracture during the first winter.
Everything gives the impression of maximum economization. Every house is built for a million roubles ($30,000), but its real value is probably between 100 to 200 thousand roubles less than that. The workers say their crews receive 200,000 roubles per house and the estimated cost of the materials is likely no more than 400,000 to 450,000 roubles. Somehow, I doubt that the interior finishing demands another 400,000 roubles for each house. If each of the 741 families were given one million out of the total 1.05 billion roubles set aside for the project, that leaves 309 million roubles to pay to the workers of the general fund, which overlooks the resettlement, the schools and hospital, and the laying of communication wires. Work on the electric and sewage systems for any given house lags so far behind the construction, it’s as though the accoutrements of modern civilization were completely forgotten the first time around.
Residents who choose not to move to Novomuslyumovo – or New- Mysulyomov - must sell their homes for 1 million roubles to the assistance fund for displaced persons, but this is anything but simple. Homeowners must produce witnesses to their right of ownership (in simplified terms a zelyonka), as well gather a multitude of certificates from the local administration. According to residents, it takes about a month to obtain a zelyonka from the registration office in Kunashakoye (the regional centre), although getting all the documents in place takes more than six. After that they must wait to sign a contract with the Fund—another month at least. Then it takes two more before they receive the money.
The administration office in Muslyumovo was unable to answer a single question connected to this process, either in terms of accounting or human relations. Neither in the administration office, nor in the specially created information center was there a single document explaining how the funds are appropriated.
The government functionaries of Chelyabinsk Region say it’s the builder’s responsibility. They claim the government carries out regular inspections, and punishes the companies for sub-standard work.
They say there’s nothing wrong with the environment of Novomuslyumovo either, even as the radioactive Techa river bubbles by. One employee at the regional construction authority said that he would, with pleasure, buy another dacha in Novomuslyumovo. Incidentally, he would settle near the town cemetery. So why is it that only the residents of the resettled town are dissatisfied?
The River of Memory
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| A wooden alarm bell in Chelyabink in memory of those who perished in and as a result of the the 1957 accident at Mayak. Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace, Russia speaks here at a rally commemorating the disaster. |
| Rashid Alimov/Bellona |
On September 29th, in a park in the Kalinin Region of Chelyabinsk, people gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of the radiation catastrophe at Mayak, the so-called Kyshtym accident which pumped radioactivity into the sky for hundreds of square kilometers around.
Similar events have become tradition for ecologists in Chelyabinsk. Already, organisations like the Movement For Nuclear Safety, Techa, and Sense of Justice are trying to focus attention on the toxic legacy of the Mayak Chemical Combine. On the 50th anniversary of the accident, they were joined by Bellona and Greenpeace Russia, as well as ecologists from Tomsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and even the Netherlands.
At the rally, inhabitants of the affected towns––Muslyumovo, Bradakalamak, Russkaya Techa—spoke of their pain as they remembered relatives who died from leukemia and other related illnesses. For so many years, their children had been allowed to swim in the Techa, and their livestock to given to graze on its poisonous banks.
In memory of the tragedy––which took over a thousand lives––ecologists established a monument to the victims of nuclear energy––an alarm bell emblazoned with the symbol of radioactivity, which could be sounded in the event of another disaster. Consecrated in a moment of silence, the bell was then rung as 217 lanterns––one for each of the towns and villages that had suffered as a result of the 1957 explosion––were lit.
“We don’t have the right to forget about this tragedy as long as there’s a chance it could happen again,” said Natalia Mironova, a representative of the Movement For Nuclear Safety, at the opening of the memorial. “Today we remember the thousand who burned to death in an atomic hell.”
At dusk, the glowing lanterns were placed in the river as tears flashed in the eyes of the onlookers.
Human lab rats
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| A group rally in the village of Tatarskaya Karabolka, near Muslyumovo, on the 50 year anniversary of the Mayak disaster. |
| Rashid Alimov/Bellona |
The residents of Muslyumovo are convinced that they were “lab rats.” Their town was the only one on the Techa River to be exposed to radiation three times and not resettled.
Radiobiologists speak with pride of how, thanks to the town of Muslyumovo, they were able to obtain unique case material about the effect of prolonged exposure to small doses of radiation on humans.
Residents of Muslyumovo don’t think it’s a coincidence they’re being resettled to the other side of the very same river - the experiment continues.
Lawyer Andrei Talevlin
Lawyer Andrei Talevlin, who is active in the environmental movement in the Chelyabinsk Region, and who represents victims of ecological disasters, sees mendacity in the resettlement plans.
“The resettlement of the people has already, on several occasions, been carried out deceitfully. About seven years ago a resident of Kunashaka came to me. At that time it was also possible to receive a house from the government, so she stood in line and got one, only her building turned out to be shoddily constructed,” Talevlin told Bellona Web in an interview.
“The same thing happened in Muslyumovo: the government appeared to be giving out apartments, but they were constructed in such a way that made them undesirable. In a similar vein, there was a lot of red tape surrounding the process of obtaining documents for the houses. You had to draw up a plan for the land and get a zelyonka, and this all took a lot of time, and more importantly, it cost a lot of money. Can you imagine what it must have been like for elderly folks see their houses destroyed? For them it was a real tragedy.”
Muslyumovo: The Facts
- Only place in the world where people are sick with chronic radiation sickness
- Only 1.4 percent can be considered ‘healthy’
- The majority of inhabitants have three or more chronic ailments
- The rates of illness and death from cancer are significantly higher than the average for Chelyabinsk Region
The town on the Techa River suffered as a result of three separate incidents. From 1949 to 1956 the nearby facility discharged liquid radioactive waste directly into the river. In 1957 there was an accident at Mayak, then in the spring of 1967, gale-force winds spread radioactive particles over an area of a thousand square kilometres.
