Belly of the Beast (28 page)

The background of
Belly of the Beast
is based on actual events.

Russia’s Chelyabinsk Province was closed to all foreigners for forty-five years, 1946 to 1991.
¹
It was the heart of the Soviet Union’s crash program to produce nuclear bombs. The main production facility, one of many in the Soviet Union, was called Mayak, Mayak Chemical Combine, or simply “the tractor factory.” Most workers lived in an area designated Chelyabinsk-40 (now Chelyabinsk-65 or Ozersk). It was a secret city; officially, the residents didn’t exist. Much of it was totally underground.

Officially, Chelyabinsk’s problems didn’t exist either, but they were, and still are, profound. The
Kyshtym Explosion
, a horrific nuclear accident, occurred in 1957. The
Lake Karachay Event
occurred ten years later. They were only two of many nuclear accidents. Thomas Cochran, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C., declared the Mayak area to be “the most polluted spot on earth.”
²

For comparison, the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl released two hundred times as much radiation as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Mark Hertsgaard, noted investigative author, said, “If you multiply Chernobyl a hundred times, you have a picture of what happened at Chelyabinsk-40.”
³
Hundreds of square miles were left barren,
⁴
but few victims were evacuated. At least 470,000 people were affected; many contracted ‘mysterious’ diseases such as skin ‘sloughing off’ their faces.
⁵

The statistic of a half a million victims does not touch our hearts; one child crying, bloody skin falling from her innocent face, does. There are half a million similar stories.

No one talked about individual victims for forty-five years. Now a few survivors do:

A pipe containing 'Product 76' developed a hole . . . we were expected to recover every drop . . . I was forced to lie down and inch along, collecting [a plutonium] solution with a washcloth . . . we were afraid only of the KGB.

Faina
Kuznetsova
, Plant 25.
⁶

. . . an assistant, G. Aleksandrov, was filtering plutonium from solvent when the glass retort exploded. His face was badly cut and plutonium got into his blood. . . . The head of the division . . . told us that we had to collect all the blood . . . so we could recover all the plutonium.

Liya
Sochina
, Plant 20.
⁷

The damage from radiation may have only just begun. Cells that are not totally destroyed may have far-reaching effects. A single injured cell has the potential to initiate a cancer or leukemia years later.
⁸
Sterility is common after irradiation, but many serious genetic mutations permit the development of compromised humans.
⁹
Birth defects are rampant, and inherited genetic defects are a frightening unknown for future generations.

Sadly, decades of nuclear disasters in Chelyabinsk-40 have been swept under the rug. According to CIA files, “The CIA knew of the 1957 Mayak accident all along, but kept it secret to prevent adverse consequences for the fledgling USA nuclear industry.”
¹⁰
The problem has not gone away. Where only fifteen pounds of plutonium were used to build the Hiroshima bomb, almost half a million pounds of plutonium and five times that much enriched uranium were stockpiled in 1991. Nuclear proliferation and radioactive contamination continue to be a global problem, and innocent victims are still desperate because of it.

For more information, Google
Mayak
,
Chelyabinsk-40
, or the sources in the following reference section.

One parting word:

Nobody knows anything about us
...
nobody in the world cares
...

Farida
Shaimardanova
, teacher,

 Muslyumovo, on Techa River.
¹¹

ENDNOTES

 1.
Grunberg
, S (1994).
Chelyabinsk: The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet, A Documentary Film.
Spencer, NY:
Log In Productions.

 2.
Ibid.

 3. Hertsgaard, M. (1992).
Case # 392:
Ural Mountains Nuclear Waste
. http://www.american.edu

 4. Medvedev, Z. (1976, Dec 9).
Soviets Experience Nuclear Accident
, Critical Mass Journal 3,
The Australian
.

 5. Pollock, R. (1978, Sept).
Soviets Experience Nuclear Accident
, Critical Mass Journal 3.

 6.
Larin
, V. (1999 Sept/Oct)
Mayak's Walking Wounded
,  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists vol. 55, no. 05

 7.
Ibid.

 8.
Gofman
, J.W., Ph.D., M.D. and
Tamplin
, A. R., Ph.D. (1979). Poisoned Power,
The Case Against Nuclear Power Plants Before and After Three Mile Island
. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.

 9.
Ibid.

10.
Gyorgy
, A. et al
No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power
(South End Press 1979), 128.
Gyorgy
, A. et al. (1979). No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

11.
Grunberg
, S (1994).
Chelyabinsk: The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet, A Documentary Film.
Spencer, NY:
Log In Productions.

General References
(for historical background)

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New Living Magazine
.

Anon (1950). Atomic Energy.
Funk &
Wagnalls
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.

Anon (1950). U.S.S.R.
Funk &
Wagnalls
Encyclopedia
.

Anon (1999, Feb 24). Inside Russia’s Nuclear Complex.
Russian Roulette.
PBS.org.

Anon (1999, May). Russia.
Plutonium Investigation
, no. 14-15. Paris, France:
www.wise-paris.org/english/ournewletter/14_15/no14_15.pdf

Anon (2000).
Chelyabinsk-65 / Ozersk, Combine 817 / Production Association Mayak.
Global Security.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/chelyabinsk-65_nuc.htm

Anon (2001, September 27).
Forty Years of Nuclear Contamination in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

Anon (2002, Feb 5). Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies.
NOVA Online
, PBS.org

Anon (2004).
Claustrophobia
. Pegasus
Neuro
Linguistic Programming, Australia.

Anon (2004).
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http://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/fissmat/pumayak/pomayak.htm

Anon (2004).
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. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/measurement.asp

Anon (2006).
Basic Characteristics of Reactor Types.
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Anon (2007).
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American University, Washington, DC.

Anon. The Nuts and Bolts of Bone Marrow Transplants,
BMT Newsletter.
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Anon. Blood Type,
Wikipedia
_`

Anon.
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Barr, J. and
Sarant
, A. (1944, November 14).
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, M (1991, December 28). Moscow Math.
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.

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New Scientist
.

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, G.J. (1997, Jan 16). Testimony on
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Yabloko’s
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, S. (2010, May 28).
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, A. R., Ph.D. (1979).
Poisoned Power, The Case Against Nuclear Power Plants Before and After Three Mile Island.
Emmaus, PA:
Rodale Press.

Gofman
, J.W., Ph.D. and M.D. and
Tamplin
, A.R., Ph.D. (1979).
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Gofman
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Grunberg
, S (1994).
Chelyabinsk: The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet, A Documentary Film.
Spencer, NY:
Log In Productions.

Gyorgy
, A.
et al
. (1979).
No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power.
Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

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Hertsgaard, M. (1998, Dec 1).
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Hertsgaard, M. (1992). Case # 392: Ural Mountains Nuclear Waste. http://www.american.edu

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