It processed fuel for its first atomic bomb and assembled up to 40 per cent of its nuclear arms stockpile. From 1949 to 1956, Mayak dumped 76 million cubic metres of toxic nuclear waste into the Techa, according to a joint report by Norwegian and Russian experts. It was not until 1989 that the Kremlin admitted an accident occurred. Today the level of radiation in the river near Muslyumovo is 400 curies, and the amount of radiation still absorbed by the residents of the village is 10 times the internationally acceptable levels, according to regional environmental officials. Looking back, Lubov Chuchkalova is horrified.
People swam in the Techa.
They washed their clothes in it and they drank from it. The health effects of the contamination have been devastating, a reality the Russian authorities try to hide. Health records are off limits. In 1992 and again last year, Muslyumovo's 4,500 residents, mostly ethnic Bashkirs, a local Muslim nationality, were transported to a regional hospital for examinations by specialists. They have never been told the test results.