Techa

The Techa is an eastward river on the eastern flank of the southern Ural Mountains noted for its nuclear contamination. It is 243 kilometres (151 mi) long, and its basin covers 7,600 square kilometres (2,900 sq mi).[1] It begins by the once-secret nuclear processing town of Ozyorsk about 80 kilometres (50 mi) northwest of Chelyabinsk and flows east then northeast to the small town of Dalmatovo to flow into the mid-part of the Iset, a tributary of the Tobol. Its basin is close to and north of the Miass, longer than these rivers apart from the Tobol.

Techa
Location
CountryRussia
Physical characteristics
MouthIset
 • coordinates
55.7686°N 60.7339°E / 55.7686; 60.7339
Length243 km (151 mi)
Basin size7,600 km2 (2,900 sq mi)
Basin features
ProgressionIset→ Tobol→ Irtysh→ Ob→ Kara Sea
Map of the Tobol basin. The Techa river (Теча) may be found to the left center, next to the regional ЧЕЛЯБИНСКАЯ ОБЛАСТЬ (Chelyabinsk Oblast) label.

Water pollution

From 1949 to 1956 the Mayak complex[2] dumped an estimated 76 million cubic metres (2.7×109 cu ft) of radioactive waste water into the Techa River,[3] a cumulative dispersal of 2.75 MCi (102 PBq) of radioactivity.[4]

As many as forty villages, with a combined population of about 28,000 residents, lined the river at the time.[5] For 24 of them, the Techa was a major source of water; 23 of them were eventually evacuated.[6] In the past 45 years, about half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents,[5][7] exposing them to as much as 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims.[3]

The Tobol is a sub-tributary of the Ob, being linked by the final part of the Irtysh; all three flow generally north.

See also

References
  1. "Река Теча in the State Water Register of Russia". textual.ru (in Russian).
  2. Techa River Archived 11 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. CHELYABINSK "The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet" – a documentary film by Slawomir Grunberg – Log In Productions – distributed by LogTV LTD
  4. Pike, John. "Chelyabinsk-65 / Ozersk Combine 817 / Production Association Mayak". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  5. "Radioactive Contamination of the Techa River and its Effects". Archived from the original on 15 March 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2008.
  6. Clay, Rebecca (April 2001). "Cold War, Hot Nukes: Legacy of an Era". Environmental Health Perspectives. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. 109 (4): a162–a169. doi:10.1289/ehp.109-a162. PMC 1240291. PMID 11335195. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  7. Zaitchik, Alexander (8 October 2007). "Inside the Zone". The Exile. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
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