From radioactive dump to dust: The deadly transformation of Russia's most toxic lake

IFL Science reports that Karachay is "the most radioactive lake on Earth". Additionally, its waters are so highly irradiated that spending just an hour sunbathing on its shores could prove fatal. The lake was forebodingly toxic and dangerous. Nevertheless, the most recent satellite images reveal that the water body is now dried up. In 2016, the lake was filled with soil, rocks, and special concrete blocks to reduce its radioactivity level.

The lake's toxicity was a direct consequence of operating the "Mayak" atomic complex (also known as "Chelyabinsk-40" and later "Chelyabinsk-65"), which spread across roughly 56 square miles. This complex, intended for the production of Soviet nuclear weapons, started construction around 1945, but little thought was put into devising a strategy for the disposal of the radioactive waste it produced. Therefore, the liquid waste was discharged into the nearby Techa River from 1949 to 1951. Post-1951, it was redirected to Lake Karachay, making it a primary source of atmospheric, soil, and groundwater pollution.

IFL Science points out that the severity of the place's toxicity became painfully obvious in the summer of 1967. A drought caused the water in Karachay to evaporate, allowing the wind to carry the dust from its bottom. It then contaminated nearby settlements, where the dangerous dust started to accumulate. However, a more notorious disaster, the Kyshtym disaster, occurred here a decade earlier. September 1957 witnessed an explosion at "Mayak" that detached the cover of the radioactive waste tank. As a result, dozens of tons of hazardous materials were flung into the air and spread over the area. The correct safety measures to implement were not known.

The issue surrounding Lake Karachay, along with the existence of the "Mayak" complex, remained a secret for many years. It was only in 1989 that the Soviet Union began to share information about these disasters, and the acknowledgment of "Mayak" finally came in 1991. Subsequently, it was reported that the prevalence of cancer supposedly shot up by 21 percent amongst the local inhabitants, with a 25 percent hike in birth defects and a staggering 41 percent surge in leukemia cases, as highlighted by IFL Science.