Russia’s Urals region and neighboring northern Kazakhstan have experienced their worst flooding in 80 years, with heavy rainfall compounded by heavy snowfall that has been melting rapidly due to warmer-than-normal temperatures this spring. Authorities evacuated tens of thousands of residents from Kurgan and Orenburg in recent weeks as floodwaters rose.
From 2021 Agenstvo, Russia’s investigative agency, reported on Sunday that the uranium mine in Dobrovolna, located in the village of Ukrainsko, Zverinogolovsky District, Kurgan, was placed in a flood zone by local authorities.
According to NS Energy Business, the mine contains approximately 7,077 tonnes of uranium ranging from 0.01 to 0.05 percent saturation. Environmentalists told Agenstvo that they fear the nearby Tobolo River could be contaminated with uranium.
Sergejus Eremin is the head of the regional environmental protection organization “Fund for the control of the state of the public environment and the well-being of the population”. He says a video shot by a resident shows that an old well that “has been leaking for 35 years [uranas]”, may already be under water.
Andrey Ozharovsky, an expert in the Radioactive Waste Safety Program of the Russian Social and Ecological Union, told the investigative website that the uranium leak from the Dobrovolnoye mine will increase the concentration of uranium salts in the Tobol River – potentially contaminating residents’ drinking water.
Agenstvo says that environmental activists in Kurgan have been urging authorities to ban uranium mining in the region for years. They fear that the radioactive solution will contaminate the groundwater and the Tobolo River.
April 17 local authorities told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the water level of the Tobolo River had exceeded the “dangerous level” limit – it had risen by 123 cm over the past 24 hours. By that time, more than 660 residential houses were flooded in Kurgan, according to Newsweek.
Tags: Part Russian population flooded radioactive water
