Located in Russia's south-west Chelyabinsk region, close to the border with Kazakhstan, in the southern Ural mountains, the Karachay Lake it’s considered the most polluted place on Earth. In fact, it’s so polluted that the lake is radioactive. Lake Karachay can thank the neighboring Mayak Production Association for its deadliness. Built in the late 1940's, Mayak was one of Russia's most prominent nuclear weapons factories. The factory was kept secret by the government until 1990. When Russian president Boris Yeltsin signed a 1992 decree opening the area, Western scientists were able to gain access. The sediment of the lake bed is estimated to be composed almost entirely of high level radioactive waste deposits to a depth of roughly 11 feet. Even just standing on shore can be deadly: If a human were to hang out on Lake Karachay for an hour, they would be exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.
It was a small lake used as a dumping ground for Chelyabinsk-65, one of the Soviet Union's biggest nuclear weapons facilities between 1951 and 1953. The road to the lake, also known as Karachai or Karachaj, is gravel. Today the lake is completely infilled, full of concrete that’s intended to keep radioactive sediment away from shore.The pollution of Lake Karachay is connected to the disposal of nuclear materials from Mayak. Among workers, cancer mortality remains an issue. By one estimate, the river contains 120 million curies of radioactive waste.
Very interesting!
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