1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey I'm Eves, and Welcome to This Day 3 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: in History Class, a show that uncovers history one day 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:25,759 Speaker 1: at a time. Today is September. The day was September 5 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven. A waste tank exploded at Mayak plutonium 6 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: processing plan in the Soviet Union. The explosion led to 7 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:41,080 Speaker 1: the contamination of nearby towns, but the Soviet government resorted 8 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: to covering up the Kistum disaster. As it's now known, 9 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: people in the area are still suffering from the effects 10 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:53,239 Speaker 1: of the nuclear contamination. In nineteen fifty seven, during the 11 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: Cold War, the Soviet Union was embroiled in a nuclear 12 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: arms race with the United States. The Kistum Nuclear Energy Complex, 13 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: then known as Chiliabinsk forty, was located in the Ural mountains, 14 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: several miles east of the city of Kaishum. The nuclear 15 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: reactors and plutonium processing plant were built at the complex 16 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties for the development of nuclear weapons. 17 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:20,479 Speaker 1: The city built to house the workers was called Chiliabinski. 18 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 1: The secret nuclear facility is now called Mayak, and the 19 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: surrounding city is known as os Yorsk. There was such 20 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:32,960 Speaker 1: a push to develop nuclear weapons that safety and research 21 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: on the effects of radioactivity on people and the environment 22 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: was not a priority. Even before the nineteen fifty seven disaster, 23 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:45,960 Speaker 1: Mayak was the source of many hazards and accidents. Workers 24 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: did not wear much protective gear. Nuclear reactors dumped radioactive 25 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,640 Speaker 1: waste right into the Taka River. Villagers who used the 26 00:01:54,680 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: contaminated water faced radiation, poisoning and other illnesses. Though there 27 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: have been many accidents at the plant since it opened, 28 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:07,400 Speaker 1: the one it's infamous for happened on September ninety seven. 29 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: Cooling systems surrounded the buried tanks that contained liquid reactor waste, 30 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: but one of the cooling systems had been malfunctioning. The 31 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: waste grew so hot from atomic decay that the system failed. 32 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: The tank's cooling liquid evaporated, and the seventy eight tons 33 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: of radioactive waste inside the tank combusted. The lid burst, 34 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 1: and the explosion created an aerosol plume of radioactive fallout 35 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: that was spread over about eight thousand square miles or 36 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: twenty thousand square kilometers. Though around two hundred and seventy 37 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: thousand people lived in that area, only eleven thousand people 38 00:02:46,360 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: were evacuated, and evacuations were slow and left many people behind. 39 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: The Soviet government did not tell evacuees what happened, and 40 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 1: the people who remained in the area were exposed to 41 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: radiation as they were tasked with destroying crops in livestock. 42 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,359 Speaker 1: In fact, the Soviets kept the cause of the disaster 43 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 1: a secret, even as radiation sickness sent many people to 44 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: the hospital and people began dying. The Western press did 45 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: receive reports that there had been a nuclear accident in 46 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, but those reports were a little more 47 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:24,119 Speaker 1: than rumor until the dissident Soviet biologists zures A met 48 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,639 Speaker 1: Vadiv reported on the disaster and the journal News Scientists 49 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six. The Soviet government continued to deny 50 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:36,120 Speaker 1: the occurrence of the disaster until it began declassifying relevant 51 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,360 Speaker 1: documents in nineteen eighty nine. It's been positive that the U. 52 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: S c i A. Knew about the disaster for years 53 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,400 Speaker 1: before it was uncovered, but kept it a secret and 54 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: later downplayed the severity of the accident to avoid selling 55 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: doubt about the safety of American nuclear plants. The Kashtum 56 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 1: disaster was rated at a level six as a serious 57 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: accident on the Internet Nuclear and Radiological Events Scale, making 58 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: it the third most severe nuclear accident ever. The two 59 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 1: above it major accidents rated as level sevens on the 60 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: scale are the disasters at Fukushima and Chernobyl. The reason 61 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,200 Speaker 1: the disaster is remembered as the Kashtum disaster, even though 62 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: it didn't take place there, is because people were told 63 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: that a coal boiler explosion in the city caused a 64 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: mess that residents were made to clean up with no 65 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:31,719 Speaker 1: protective gear. Russia has claimed that the plant stopped dumping 66 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: its waste into the Taka River, though some people have 67 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:39,600 Speaker 1: questioned whether the dumps ever really stopped. Some villagers who 68 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 1: lived along the river were relocated, but many still live 69 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: in their contaminated villages. Cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, and other 70 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: health issues occur at higher rates in places along the river. 71 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: The Mayak plant is still in operation, but it no 72 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: longer processes weapons great plutonium. It now rep ausis is 73 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: spent nuclear fuel. I'm Eve step Cote, and hopefully you 74 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,840 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 75 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: If there's something that I missed in an episode, you 76 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 1: can share it with everybody else on Twitter, Instagram or 77 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: Facebook at t d i h C podcast. Thanks for 78 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,919 Speaker 1: joining me on this trip through time. See you here 79 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: in the exact same spot tomorrow. For more podcasts from 80 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 81 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.