Villagers exposed to radiation in 1950s to be resettled soon

Residents of the village of Muslyumovo, Chelyabinsk Region, in the southeastern Urals area of Russia, will be resettled by September 1, RIA Novosti reports, citing a statement by Chelyabinsk Region First Deputy Governor Vladimir Dyatlov. The village was exposed to high levels of radiation throughout the 1950s and remains contaminated to this day.

The new village of Novomuslyumovo is being built to accommodate the Muslyumovo residents, with 1 million rubles ($31,215) being allocated for every house by the federal nuclear regulatory agency Rosatom under an agreement reached with the regional government in 2006.

Of the 741 households subject to the agreement, about 400 have already moved out of Muslyumovo to more distance places. Another 176 families are already living in a completed neighborhood in Novomuslyumovo and 24 families moved to the nearby village of Kunashak. Muslyumovo will be torn down and grass and trees planted on its territory.

Muslyumovo is on the bank of the Techa River, and downstream from the Mayak Chemical Combine, an early Soviet nuclear facility, notes the Norwegian environmental group Bellona, which has been tracking the situation in the village for several years. Villages along the Techa received huge doses of radiation several times.

Between 1949 and 1951, improperly treated radioactive waste was released into the Techa, turning the river black. An explosion at Mayak in 1957 exposed 20,000 sq. km. and 270,000 people to even more radiation. Most inhabitants of the area were evacuated at that time. Muslyumovo, where the inhabitants are predominantly Tatars, was not evacuated, however.

Rehabilitation of the Techa basin was begun last year by the regional government and Rosatom. It is being financed by money being received by Mayak for reprocessing nuclear waste.