Floods flood uranium wells in Russia: there is a threat of river contamination

In the Kurgan region of the Russian Federation, a flood flooded old uranium wells at the Dobrovolnoye deposit in the Zverinogolovskoye district. Environmentalists believe that the radioactive solution got into the Tobol River and this will cause an increase in diseases in the region.

This was reported by Russian media. The group of the regional environmental organization "Fund for Public Control over the Environment and Public Welfare" also published a video of the flood consequences the day before.

This footage shows that the entire area between the villages of Trud and Znanie and Zverinogolovskoye is flooded with water. This is where Dobrovolnoye is located. Groundwater from its wells could have mixed with river water and entered the water supply system.

The flooded area captured by satellite images includes both old and new uranium mining wells. There are about 100 old wells in the flooded area, and "there should be even more new ones."

The flood washed into Tobol radioactive dirt that had been collected over the years from groundwater from old test wells, environmentalists say. An old well that has been "leaking for 35 years" could be underwater, while new wells are drilled higher up and the water allegedly has not yet reached them.

"Uranium is an alpha-active drug, and its ingestion with drinking water leads to internal radiation, which is much more dangerous than external radiation. Of course, Tobol water will greatly dilute the solution, and the concentrations will not exceed any standards. But still, the collective doses of the mounds will increase and someone will get sick. This is absolutely inevitable," said Andrey Ozharovsky, an expert of the Radioactive Waste Safety Program of the Russian Social and Ecological Union.

It should be noted that the Dobrovolnoye deposit is being developed by Dalur, a member of the Rosatom state corporation. The company claimed that the enterprises were allegedly "not affected by the extremely high flood," which contradicts the published videos.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, floods continue to drown towns and villages in Russia after the "Orsk breakthrough". On April 19, the water level exceeded ten meters in parts of the Tobol River in the Russian city of Kurgan. Several districts in the city have already been flooded.

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