HISTORY
The Story Of The Hidden Nuclear Disaster In Soviet History
Something that was hidden for decades
In September 1957, residents noticed a strange yet spectacular colorful display in the sky that appeared to be just a weird form of the northern light. But it wasn’t anything harmless as it carried literal death with it after a nuclear disaster happened in the southwest of the Soviet Union.
After the Chernobyl catastrophe, this was the second most catastrophic nuclear event in history.
It was classified as a Level 6 catastrophe on the International Nuclear Event Scale, making it the third most severe nuclear disaster on the INES after the Chernobyl nuclear accident and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster classified as Level 7 disasters INES.
The catastrophe dispersed hot particles across more than 52,000 square kilometers, covering a population of at least 270,000 people.
Because Chelyabinsk-40 was not shown on maps, the catastrophe was given the name Kyshtym, the closest recognized town.
Before World War II
Due to the Soviet Union’s technological and scientific deficit behind the United States in creating nuclear weapons after World War II, its government launched a fast…
