The huge nuclear disaster hidden by the Soviets - BBC REEL

In 1957, a massive nuclear accident took place at the top secret Mayak nuclear station in the Soviet Union. At the time, it was the largest nuclear disaster in history. So why has no one heard of it?

Despite its size, Soviet authorities managed to keep the accident a secret for almost four decades, and details of the devastating legacy of what is now known as the 'Kyshtym disaster' are still only just becoming clear today.

Additional photos courtesy of: Ecodefense/Heinrich Boell Stiftung Russia/Slapovskaya/Nikulina/

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[incremental_failure]

And Russians wonder why other ex-Soviet states don't like them. This type of behavior was typical and nothing has changed. Who would want an union with these people?

[OliverJazzz]

This isn't discussed much even if it is a know fact. The Soviet Union also dumped huge amounts of nuclear waste all over the country and also the oceans, no one knows the full scale of it all.

[HreForTheMusic]

Wow I had no idea. Thanks for sharing this story.

[badscrew]

I knew a woman who's maternal grand-parents worked at Mayak back then, both eventually dead from cancer...

[ozzy]

Sad part is what this job site is still operational in Russia !!!

[OlegBorussia]

I hate everything which is connected with Soviet Union... Unfortunately, I was born there...The systems and approaches are still the same all over the Eastern Europe. It's hard to watch when people blindly believe their leaders...and subdue to everything. Fucken nightmare!!!

[gianlucacaputo]

Just to be precise, and as stated in the video, this has not been a nuclear accident but actually a chemical industry accident involving radioactive material…

[railgap]

I wrote a speech about this accident in the 1970s so it had definitely leaked to books available from my public library by that time.

[unconventionalideas]

Thank you for discussing this. It is too seldom spoken of, even now.

[Bultish]

Mayak and the 300 000 people living down stream of this garbage pile..

[lucylocket]

David Farrier in one of the episodes of "Dark Tourist" went to Russia to a place where soviets (lower case intended) carried out experiments with radioactivity. They contaminated vast areas of the country with radioactive materials. Local people are still getting ill and dying because of it. I don't remember the name of the place but it wasn't Chernobyl (Farrier also visited Chernobyl and Fukushima). Scary stuff ;(

[lexinexi-hjzo]

That liquid is waste dissolved in nitric acid. Well what are explosives some type of metal or hydrocarbon fuel plus NO2 a nitrate. So you could have had AmoniumNitrateAluminum or ANFO nitrate and fuel oil from the solvents making a perfect high explosive. just boil off the water from its self heat, then heat the solid and BOOM a huge blast from tons of the stuff, much like the explosion in beiruit lebabanon.

[wisteela]

Rather worrying. Makes you wonder what other cases have been covered up.

[djcfrompt]

This is interesting - you implied that nobody really new about this until the breakup of the USSR, but I came to this video because I was watching original US news reporting on when the USSR first admitted there was an accident at Chernobyl and they mentioned that US scientists were shocked that the USSR had admitted anything because they had said nothing about this disaster even though foreign scientists had detected the radiation and been able to determine its source. So I think there was more outside knowledge than you make it seem.

[romanchomenko]

During the 1970s in Ukraine the Soviets used nuclear weapons one was used to stop a high pressure gas field in Poltava region and another nuclear weapon was used in a coal mine to stop methane gas in Donbas. These Soviets were grazy people who ruled by fear .

[uqonsoul]

Why this is the first time I heard about this?

[sigsin]

Info on Mayak has been out there for years. What people don’t know about is the US’s biggest nuclear reactor accident at the Santa Susana Field Lab in 1959.

[Domdeone]

There was a film made not so long ago in Estonia, a mystery film but 1/3 of the cast fell ill/died after-it was that contaminated

[_robustus_]

Why would it be secret now? Are any of the shot callers still alive?

[BiGDukeActual]

Post Cold War era and save the size of the country, not much is changed.