“Globus1”, “Chagan”, “Butan”...

On September 19, 1971, residents of several villages in the Ivanovo region suddenly felt the earth disappear from under their feet. Glass rattled in the houses, cows mooed in the barn.

However, no one had time to really get scared. The ground vibrations lasted only a few seconds and ended as unexpectedly as they began...

A few days later, from rumors that were passed from mouth to mouth, local residents learned the reason for this unusual “natural phenomenon.”

It was rumored that somewhere near Kineshma the military exploded some kind of terrible bomb and supposedly something went wrong. The area of ​​the explosion was quickly cordoned off by soldiers, and no one was allowed to enter there.

The cordon was soon lifted, but the ban on visiting berry places remained for a long time...

What actually happened on that September day, the residents of the Ivanovo region, and with them the rest of the population of Russia, learned only twenty years later, when the “Secret” stamp was removed from many events of the Soviet era...

As often happens, the word-of-mouth messages of that time largely corresponded to reality.

It turned out that on that day, four kilometers from the village of Galkino, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region, on the left bank of the Shacha River, an underground explosion of a nuclear device with a capacity of 2.3 kilotons was carried out. This was one of a series of “peaceful” nuclear explosions carried out for industrial purposes.

The experiment was carried out by order of the USSR Ministry of Geology and was codenamed “Globus-1”.

The depth of the well in which the nuclear charge was placed was 610 meters. The purpose of the explosion is deep seismic sounding along the Vorkuta - Kineshma profile.

The experiment itself went without a hitch. The charge detonated at the right time. Equipment located both in the immediate vicinity of the test point and thousands of kilometers away from it regularly recorded vibrations of the earth's crust.

Based on these data, it was planned to identify oil reserves in the northern regions of the European part of the country.

(Looking ahead a little, let’s say that it was possible to solve the task - new oil fields were discovered in the Vologda and Kostroma regions.)

In general, everything went fine until, eighteen minutes after the explosion, a gas-water fountain appeared one meter northwest of the charging well, bringing radioactive sand and water to the surface.

The release lasted almost twenty days.

Subsequently, it was found out that the cause of the accident was poor-quality cementing of the annulus of the charging well.

It’s good that as a result of the accident, only inert radioactive gases with a short half-life were released into the atmosphere, and due to dilution in the atmosphere, there was a rapid decrease in radioactivity in the ground layer of air.

Therefore, just a few hours after the explosion at a distance of two kilometers from the epicenter, the dose rate did not exceed the natural background radiation.

Water pollution in the Shacha River above permissible standards was observed at a distance of only a few tens of meters. And even then only in the first days after the accident.

Dry figures from the documents say that on the third day the maximum dose rate was 50 milliroentgen per hour, and on the twenty-second day – 1 milliroentgen per hour...

Eight months after the explosion, the dose rate at the site did not exceed 150 micro-roentgens per hour at the wellhead, and beyond - 50 micro-roentgens per hour, with a natural background radiation - 5 - 15 micro-roentgens per hour.

As it was written in the report on the experiment, “thanks to the well-coordinated work of the radiation safety service, none of the population or participants in the explosion were injured.”

This is true. No one was hurt. But only on that day. For some reason, doctors from the nuclear industry do not like to talk about long-term and indirect consequences.

But it seems there were consequences.

“After this Globus, calves with two heads were born,” recalled Nadezhda Surikova, a paramedic from the village of Ilinskoye. – Premature children began to be born. Miscarriages became commonplace, and when I started working, all the women nursed normally for the full term.” This evidence was published in 2002 by the newspaper Gazeta.

Nadezhda Petrovna is sure that two children here died from radiation sickness. The teenagers visited the site of the explosion two months later, and in the winter they both fell ill and suffered from headaches. They were taken to Ivanovo, where they were diagnosed with meningitis. Soon the boys were gone. The villagers don't believe in meningitis.

According to local authorities, the teenagers themselves are to blame for their death. Despite the ban, they made their way into the closed area and moved the concrete slabs that covered the mine. Although it is difficult to imagine how they could cope with multi-ton blocks.

In addition, in populated areas located near the explosion site, the number of deaths from cancer has increased sharply. And not only in the 1970s.

According to the chief physician of the regional oncology clinic, Emma Ryabova, the Ivanovo region is still in first place in Russia in terms of the number of cancer diseases.

The unfavorable environmental situation in the area of ​​the explosion still persists. In some ways it has even worsened over the years.

According to Olga Dracheva, head of the radiation safety department of the Ivanovo Regional SES, in 1997 gamma radiation with a power of 1500 micro-roentgens per hour was recorded at some points on the site, in 1999 – 3500, and in 2000 – already 8000!

According to Olga Alekseevna, now the radiation power has decreased and is about 3000 microroentgens, but everything indicates that isotopes continue to reach the surface.

This usually happens during floods - meltwater washes out contaminated soil and spreads it around.

The ruined place near the village of Galkino has never gone unnoticed by the authorities.

Back in 1976, two wells were drilled here to study the causes of the accident and the consequences of the explosion on the subsoil. Drilling fluid and pumped water containing cesium-137 and strontium-90 were collected in specially dug trenches.

Having completed the research, the trenches were filled with clean soil. Air pollution at the drilling site remained at background levels...

In the 1990s, expeditions to the site of the Globus-1 explosion became annual...

According to data at the beginning of the 2000s, the situation in the area of ​​the explosion was as follows. Radioactive soil is located at a depth of 10 cm to 1.5 m, and in the place of trenches filled with soil - up to 2.5 m.

On the territory of the facility, the dose rate of gamma radiation at a height of 1 m from the surface ranges from 8 to 380 microroentgens per hour. The highest readings are observed in limited areas and are due to opening to control the trench...

In 2002, the regional administration became concerned about the situation in the Kineshma district. A series of meetings were held at which a decision was made to preserve the explosion site. It is planned to straighten the bed of the Shacha River, pour clean soil at the site of the explosion... Work at the Globus-1 facility was included in the Radiation Safety of Russia Program and began in 2003. Whether they are completed or ongoing, no one can say for sure.

Also, no one can say what kind of bright yellow tank trucks with radioactive danger icons were running all the summer months of 2005 towards the object. The newspaper “Ivanovo-Voznesensk” reported this.

The cars had license plates of the Tver, Murmansk and Voronezh regions, where, as is known, nuclear power plants are located.

Journalists suggested that some hazardous waste from the nuclear power plant was transported to the Ivanovo region. The regional authorities categorically deny this. However, it was not possible to find out what kind of cargo the tank trucks were carrying.

Although the explosion in the Ivanovo region took place under the designation “Globus-1,” it was not the first carried out as part of the seismic sounding project for the Vorkuta-Kineshma profile.

The first experiment, codenamed "Globus-4", was carried out on July 2, 1971 in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Eight days later, a second test took place there, designated in official documents as “Globus-3”.

Then there was an explosion in the Ivanovo region, which we described above.

The explosions in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and in the Arkhangelsk region took place without complications.

According to official data, in the Soviet Union from January 1965 to September 1988, 124 nuclear explosions were carried out for peaceful purposes, including 119 explosions outside nuclear test sites. All of them were carried out underground.

The first such experiment took place on January 15, 1965 in Kazakhstan, on the territory of the Semipalatinsk test site.

The test was codenamed "Chagan". Its goal was to develop a new type of charge, which was later supposed to be used to carry out industrial nuclear explosions.

The test was successful, demonstrating both the reliability of the device and the relative ease of its use...

In the same year, on March 30, the first explosion that had a practical purpose occurred in Bashkiria, code-named “Butan”. Its goal was to intensify oil production in the region.

This was the first so-called group nuclear explosion in our country: two charges were placed close to each other in wells 617 and 618 and detonated simultaneously.

In subsequent years, explosive work using nuclear charges was carried out quite intensively. The customers of the experiments were various ministries and departments: geology (51 explosions), gas industry (26), oil and oil refining industries (13), medium-sized mechanical engineering (19).

The geography of the use of nuclear charges for peaceful purposes was also wide (explosions carried out at nuclear test sites are not considered in this case).

81 shells were exploded on the territory of the RSFSR: Bashkir, Komi, Kalmyk and Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, Tyumen, Perm, Orenburg, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Murmansk and Chita regions, Stavropol and Krasnoyarsk territories. In Ukraine - two shells, in Kazakhstan - thirty-three, in Uzbekistan - two, in Turkmenistan - one.

The last industrial nuclear explosion in the USSR was carried out on September 6, 1988. A charge with a capacity of 8.5 kilotons was detonated in the Arkhangelsk region. The experiment was codenamed Rubin-1.

The explosion in the Ivanovo region is not the only nuclear test within the framework of the program for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, which is classified as an emergency. There were a number of other incidents. Moreover, the consequences of Globus-1 do not look the most terrible compared to others.

On March 11, 2002, a meeting was held in the administration of the Ivanovo region at which a project to eliminate the consequences of a nuclear explosion thirty years ago was considered.

Leading researcher at the Moscow Institute of Industrial Technologies Vyacheslav Ilyichev provided the following data: out of 81 peaceful nuclear explosions carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation, four were accidents.

Unfortunately, there is little information about these incidents - the atomic department is still in no hurry to report what actually happened in past years in various parts of our vast country. But some information still leaked through the high fences.

Thus, it is known that on August 24, 1978, the Kraton-3 experiment was carried out in Yakutia by order of the USSR Ministry of Geology.

Due to the negligence of the workers, a concrete plug was knocked out of the shaft in which the nuclear charge was placed, which prevented the release of radionuclides to the surface.

The participants in the work themselves suffered the most from this, since it was in the direction of their camp that the infected cloud moved...

Experts also call the explosion on the Obusa River in the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug an emergency. Although there is no official data on this matter.

The fact that problems arose during the trials is evidenced by the sharp increase in the number of cancer diseases among local residents. Children were especially affected. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Or maybe not…

An increase in background radiation after peaceful nuclear explosions was also recorded in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Yakutia, and the Murmansk Region.

Fortunately, the indicators only slightly exceeded the natural background, so it is impossible to talk about any serious consequences for the population and nature. Although nothing passes without a trace...

But in the Astrakhan and Orenburg regions, where nuclear explosions created underground tanks for storing oil and gas condensate, the unfavorable radiation situation still persists.

These structures were operated in violation of technology. Instead of pumping dehydrated food into them, solutions that could accumulate radiation were poured inside.

Now, decades later, the underground cavities began to decrease in volume, and radioactive brine began to appear on the surface...

And one more fact. There is a rather curious and widely unknown document - “Analysis of the environmental situation in Russia.” It was prepared specifically for the meeting of the Presidium of the State Council of the Russian Federation in June 2003. The document, in particular, says: “The negative consequences of underground nuclear explosions carried out for peaceful purposes are noted in Yakutia, Arkhangelsk, Perm and Ivanovo regions.”

It can be assumed with a high degree of probability that we know only a small fraction about emergency peaceful nuclear explosions...

After the Rubin-1 experiment, no peaceful nuclear explosions were carried out in the USSR. And soon a moratorium was imposed on the testing of warheads, which continues to this day.

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On September 19, 1971, an underground nuclear explosion was carried out on the banks of the Shachi River, 4 km from the village of Galkino, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region. Just 363 kilometers in a straight line from Red Square.

In the 1960-1980s, by order of the Ministry of Geology in the USSR, a program of deep seismic sounding of the earth's crust was implemented - both to clarify its structure and to identify structures in which it is advisable to conduct further search for mineral deposits (mainly oil and gas). A Special Regional Geophysical Expedition was created. The plan developed during the expedition became the basis of a state program code-named Program 7. It covered the territory of the entire country, from Brest to Yakutia.

Seismic exploration is carried out quite simply - an explosive charge is detonated at a certain point, and sensitive instruments placed at different distances around record the time of arrival of seismic waves and their parameters. After several “man-made earthquakes”, a three-dimensional map of the entire thickness of rocks is created - after all, a seismic wave passes through different rocks in different ways, and the explosion seems to “shine through” the ground. Typically, the seismic method is used to survey specific deposits, and the power of the charges is low. But the project to explore a huge territory required completely different capacities.

In the spring of 1971, in a sparsely populated area of ​​the Ivanovo region, not far from the villages of Galkino and Butusikha, first groups of prospectors, and then heavy equipment: tractors, bulldozers, drilling rigs appeared. Based on a number of parameters, a point on the left bank of the Shachi was chosen as the location for the future well. The object received the code designation “Globus-1”, and was the closest to the capital and densely populated center of the country among 22 similar objects.

The work went on for several months. The local population also took part in them - felling timber and other auxiliary work. Everyone believed that “they would explode a bomb in the well and look for oil.” In September everything was completed, the charge was delivered, lowered to a depth of 610 meters, the well above it was plugged and filled with cement.

This was no ordinary charge. For the global seismic sounding program, as mentioned above, very high charge powers were required. The decision was made to use nuclear devices. Back in 1966, VNIITF began developing charges for non-military purposes, including borehole charges. For seismic sounding, charges with a power of 2.3 to 22 kilotons of TNT equivalent were selected (the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had a power of 13-15 kilotons). For Globus-1, the smallest charge was chosen - 2.3 kt.

On Sunday, September 19, 1971, people from a construction site walked along the only street in the village of Galkino. Knocking on all the houses, they recommended that the windows be covered with paper in a crisscross pattern, and that everyone should leave their houses and go outside after 7:00 p.m. Vehicles were sent to the village, which were supposed to evacuate people to the Volga in the event of an accident (but this was not announced in advance - in order to prevent panic).

In the evening the earth trembled, glass rattled, cattle roared. The explosion of the camouflage nuclear charge was carried out exactly on schedule. A small earthquake was all that the residents of Galkino and neighboring villages felt. At the facility itself, things were not so rosy: 18 minutes after the explosion, a fountain of water-gas-soil mixture appeared about a meter from the combat well. There was an error in the calculations; enormous pressure destroyed the rocks and the cement layer, and along the wellbore the pressure from the source began to be released into the atmosphere.

Fortunately, what ended up on the surface were mostly inert gases with a short half-life (within a few days and months). After twenty days, their exit stopped on its own. A relatively small area measuring approximately 200x200 meters, including the bank of the Shacha River, is contaminated with decay products. But even at the moment of the greatest activity of the “geyser”, in the first hours after the explosion, two kilometers from the well, the dose rate did not exceed the natural background. Few long-lived isotopes reached the surface.

Dry figures from the documents say that on the third day the maximum dose rate was 50 milliroentgen per hour, and on the 22nd day - 1 milliroentgen per hour. 8 months after the explosion, the dose rate at the site did not exceed 150 micro-roentgens per hour at the wellhead, and beyond - 50 micro-roentgens per hour, with a natural radiation background of 5-15 micro-roentgens per hour.

Decontamination was carried out, and the heavily contaminated soil was buried in several trenches. Then the object was mothballed, and soon people left the place, leaving all the equipment behind. There was still a lot of work awaiting them throughout the country: the deep seismic sounding program continued. The generators and powerful water pump written off by the “explosives” were taken over by the local state farm - such equipment is very useful on the farm. The bulldozer also went there, possibly previously engaged in decontamination work. And for a long time, local residents removed wires, bolts, and sheets of metal from the clearing...

As it was written in the report on the experiment, “thanks to the well-coordinated work of the radiation safety service, none of the population or participants in the explosion were injured.” In general, this is true. No one was hurt. But only on that ill-fated day. For some reason, doctors from the nuclear industry do not like to talk about long-term and indirect consequences.

But they – the consequences – seem to have been there after all. “After this Globus, calves with two heads were born,” recalled Nadezhda Surikova, a paramedic from the village of Ilinskoye. – Premature children began to be born. Miscarriages are now common, but when I started working, all the women nursed normally for the full term.” This evidence was published in 2002 by the newspaper Gazeta.

Nadezhda Petrovna is sure that two local children died from radiation sickness. The teenagers visited the site of the explosion two months later, and in the winter they both fell ill and suffered from headaches. They were taken to Ivanovo, where they were diagnosed with meningitis. Soon the boys were gone. The villagers don't believe in meningitis. According to local authorities, the teenagers themselves are to blame for their death.

In addition, in populated areas located near the explosion site, the number of deaths from cancer has increased sharply. Moreover, not only in the 1970s. According to the chief physician of the regional oncology clinic, Emma Ryabova, the Ivanovo region still holds first place in Russia in terms of the number of cancer diseases.

The unfavorable environmental situation in the area of ​​the explosion still persists. In some ways it has even worsened over the years. According to Olga Dracheva, head of the radiation safety department of the Ivanovo Regional SES, in 1997 gamma radiation with a power of 1.5 thousand microroentgens per hour was recorded at some points on the site, in 1999 – 3.5 thousand, and in 2000 – already 8 thousand ! “Now the radiation power has dropped and is about 3 thousand microroentgens,” says Olga Alekseevna. “But everything indicates that isotopes continue to reach the surface.” This usually happens during floods - meltwater washes out contaminated soil and spreads it around.

The “lost place” near the village of Galkino has never gone unnoticed by the authorities. Back in 1976, two wells were drilled into the explosion zone to study the causes of the accident and the consequences of the explosion’s impact on the subsoil. Before drilling, three trenches were dug at the site. During the process of drilling and testing wells, drilling fluid and pumped water containing radioactivity (cesium-137 and strontium-90) were collected in these trenches. Upon completion of the research, the trenches and the entire contaminated area were covered with clean soil. Air pollution at the drilling site remained at background levels.

And in subsequent years, experts studied the area of ​​the Globus-1 explosion. In the 1990s, these expeditions became annual. According to data at the beginning of the 21st century, the situation in the area of ​​the explosion was as follows. Radioactive soil is located at a depth of 10 centimeters to one and a half meters, and in places where trenches are filled with soil - up to 2.5 meters. On the territory of the facility, the dose rate of gamma radiation at a height of 1 meter from the surface ranges from 8 to 380 microroentgens per hour. The highest readings are observed in limited areas and are due to opening to control the trench.

At the moment, the deeply depressed Ivanovo region ranks first in the Central Federal District in terms of the number of cancer patients... The corresponding dispensary, designed for 5000 “beds”, is never empty...

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Near the Volga there is an abandoned site with radioactive waste measuring 10 thousand cubic meters

40 years ago, on September 19, 1971, 4.5 km from the village of Galkino (Kineshma district), an underground nuclear explosion was carried out on the left bank of the Shachi River.

Ivanovskaya Gazeta has obtained new documents indicating that now the industrial site at the site of the explosion (its code name is Globus-1), measuring 05-1.5 hectares and with a depth of 10 to 300 centimeters, can be regarded as a facility with radioactive waste.

The radionuclide cesium-137 was found in the samples in quantities exceeding the natural content by up to 2000 times. The territory is also contaminated with fragmentation radionuclides and tritium, the maximum specific activity of the soil is 170 times higher than normal, and radioactive water from the center of the explosion can flow into rivers.

What happened in 1971?

In a forest clearing at a depth of 610 meters, scientists planted a nuclear charge with a capacity of 2.3 kilotons. At 18 minutes after the explosion, an accident occurred: a fountain erupted from the ground a meter from the well. Along with water and dirt, inert gases and radioactive products cesium-137 and strontium-90 began to emerge to the surface...

In the settlement closest to the place of the experiment - the village of Galkino - there were about 10 families living then.

One of the witnesses, Faina Ryabtseva, who worked as a cook on an expedition carrying out blasting operations, was found by Gazeta journalist Vasily Gulin.

- For the first time in my work as a cook, I served the table with pressed caviar, jarred ham and Finnish cervelat, - said the woman. – And the people were all good - cheerful, intelligent, and sang well with the guitar. They arrived a month before the explosion, and left about a couple of weeks after it... They said that they had found what they were looking for, but in a different place. And they advised me to go to the work site less often: they say it’s dangerous, you might fall through.

Now no one lives in Galkino, and getting there is not easy: past hurricanes have blocked the roads, beavers have built dams, and in some places there are swamps along the roads. But in the village of Oktyabrsky, which is 4-5 kilometers from the village of Galkino, IG journalists found another witness to those events - Valery Smirnov, who came to the deserted village for the sake of bees.

- In Soviet times, about 1,500 people lived in Oktyabrsky, - recalls Valery Ivanovich. - A couple of weeks before the explosion, two lieutenant colonels and a colonel walked around the village, saying that they would look for oil in the area and drill a well. And on the day of the explosion, they demanded that residents vacate the premises. And not in vain: several houses were damaged by the blast wave, and then the authorities even paid money for repairs.

Valery Smirnov believes that it was because of those events that his son died. Some time after the explosion, the son and four of his friends tried to get into the “holes” in the place where the scientists were working: to see if oil had been found. Smirnov Jr. and Yura Uchaikin fell ill, suffered from headaches and soon died. The official diagnosis is meningitis. Three other guys survived only because they didn’t climb into the “holes.”

The leader of the explosion went blind after 4 years

Until 1996, livestock was grazed at the landfill. The animals quenched their thirst from the lake formed after the explosion. And, supposedly, there were cases of the birth of calves with a fifth leg on the spine and sheep without wool.

The team of seismologists left, leaving behind their equipment and property - apparently understanding its danger. But the local residents did not let good things go to waste: the bulldozer was taken over by the local collective farm, and the powerful pump that pumped water from Shachi to the drilling site later served on the village water supply system for several years!

Estimates of the impact of the accident on local residents vary. One of the paramedics in Ilyinsky told reporters that dozens of her patients then developed malignant tumors, and premature babies were often born.

However, it is now impossible to trace the dynamics of cancer and blood diseases among local residents: as the press wrote, in 1996, under mysterious circumstances, the archive of the Zavolzhskaya regional hospital, where the medical records of the population were kept, burned down.

Meanwhile, seismologist V.V. Fedorov, who supervised the preparation and execution of the explosion, went blind in 1975 at the age of 44 and became disabled in the first group.

Does radioactive cesium enter the Volga through Shacha?

Scientists at the All-Russian Design and Survey Research Institute of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation (the successor to the organization that carried out “peaceful” explosions in the USSR) claim: there is no damage from Globus-1.

Back in the 70s, 3 trenches were dug on the territory of the Globus-1 facility, where drilling fluid and pumped water contaminated with radionuclides were collected; drilled 2 research wells. And then the entire area was simply covered with clean soil.

- After the accident, only inert radioactive gases with a short half-life were released into the atmosphere“, says Vyacheslav Ilyichev, leading researcher at the research institute. Already in the first hours after the explosion at a distance of 2 km, the dose rate did not exceed the natural radiation background. No one from the population or those involved in the work was injured.

Despite the bravura reports, the research institute had to develop a project for the rehabilitation of the Globus-1 facility. The thing is that the Shacha River, which flows into the Volga 12 kilometers from the test site, was washing away the shore of the site and could have made its way right above the well, which means all the “radioactive dirt” could well end up in the Volga. In 2004, a bypass canal was built, and the banks of Shachi were strengthened.

But this did not completely solve the problem. In 2008, specialists from the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Radiation Hygiene visited the site. Their conclusions are disappointing: according to Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute Viktor Repin, processes in wells lead to radiation nuclides coming to the surface. Some scientists are completely categorical: in spring and summer, cesium salts still end up in Shacha, and through it they go to the Volga, which jeopardizes the health of thousands of people.

Solid radioactive waste lies on the surface

ISIS journalists got their hands on a document on the study of the Globus-1 site today. Here are a number of quotes from this document that show what conclusions the scientists came to.

“The radiation situation is only getting worse. Conditions for long-term localization of radioactive explosion products have not been created.”

“The total volume of soil contaminated with radionuclides is 10 thousand m3. The expedition data confirmed the presence of cesium-137 radionuclide in the samples in quantities exceeding the natural content by up to 2000 times and the contamination of the soil with fragmentation radionuclides and tritium.”

“A significant scatter in gamma radiation dose rates in the air has been revealed. The concentration of cesium-137 in all soil samples was very high. For most of the studied soil samples, the minimum significant specific activity is exceeded. Such materials are classified as solid radioactive waste.”

“The distribution of radioactivity at the site is uneven and chaotic. The most contaminated soil, including that classified as solid radioactive waste, is located at the locations of pre-existing trenches, in the shafts of research wells.”

“According to preliminary estimates, possible radiation doses per month can range from 0.7 mSv to 12 mSv. The predicted dose values ​​indicate a high radiation risk, especially during emergency scenarios.”(Acceptable doses for the population are now up to 1 mSv per year, and a number of experts insist on reducing this dose to 0.25 mSv per year)

« It is most likely that the water at the mouth of the three wells is directly connected to the water in the central explosion zone. There is leakage of radioactive water from the central zone of the explosion to the wellheads with subsequent contamination of wellhead areas with radionuclides. Calculations have shown the potential for radioactive water to flow from the explosion zone into the overlying aquifers.”(Translated from scientific language, this means that contaminated water from the depths where the explosion occurred has long been coming up through wells, and it is not excluded that it will enter the Shacha and Volga rivers).

120 million rubles are needed for reclamation

This is not to say that the situation is out of control. As stated in the same document, the levels of radionuclides outside Globus-1, in the water of the Shacha River, are still significantly below normal, mushrooms and berries from nearby forests are not contaminated. Livestock and crop products from nearby populated areas do not cause concern.

However, experts are confident: it is necessary to create a sarcophagus of wells, eliminate the flow of radioactive water from the explosion zone, compact the soil, and isolate the site for access by people and animals. According to some estimates, reclamation work could cost more than 120 million rubles.

In the annual report of JSC VNIPIpromtekhnologii for 2010 (the same institute that insists that “everything is fine, beautiful marquise”) it is indicated that their specialists are still carrying out “ ...design and survey work for the rehabilitation of the territory of the Globus-1 facility.

However, according to IG, funding from the federal program “Nuclear and Radiation Safety of Russia” for the Ivanovo facility has long been stopped.

Why did they detonate a nuclear bomb in the center of Russia?

The explosion near the village of Galkino is one of 124 peaceful nuclear explosions carried out in the USSR from 1965 to 1988 and one of four in which the territory was contaminated.

Complete official data on the results of all tests have not been published; information about radioactive contamination of the area is incomplete and often contradictory. (True, in 1994, Minatom admitted that “local above-background pollution around wells” persists in as many as 24 cases.)

The purpose of the explosion near the village of Galkino is to study the internal structure of the Earth by recording shock waves, as well as to search for minerals. Dozens of sensors recorded the movement of geological layers throughout the USSR, which allegedly made it possible to identify oil reserves in the Vologda and Kostroma regions.

Peaceful explosions were also used to create underground storage tanks for hazardous waste and to extinguish oil fires. There were projects where hundreds of such explosions were supposed to be used (for example, to connect the Dead Sea with the Red Sea, to turn northern rivers)

Soil from an industrial siteCan Globus-1 be used by terrorists?

Quote from the report of Ivanovo scientists:

“Radioactive soil does not have physical protection, which allows unknown “researchers” to open radioactive burial sites with the removal of radioactivity to the surface and further contamination of the industrial site.

“At the same time, the possibility of removing radioactive soil from the Globus-1 industrial site and committing illegal acts against the population and environment of the Ivanovo region cannot be ruled out.”

Globus 1 will be dangerous for 48 thousand years

Data on radiation dose rate at the facility sites:

1971 - 150 microroentgen

1997 – 1500 microroentgen

1999 – 3500 microroentgen

2000 – 8000 microroentgen

20 g - 3000 microroentgen, at a depth of 50 cm the radiation intensity reaches 20-45 thousand microroentgen

For reference: the maximum threshold of the “background” value is 50 microroentgen

Meanwhile

In terms of cancer incidence, the Ivanovo region ranks 3rd in Russia after Ryazan and Novgorod. The incidence rate of malignant neoplasms exceeds the Russian figure by 21%. Every year, more than 2,500 people die from cancer in the region, 1,000 of whom are of working age.

Photo: Scientists from St. Petersburg are exploring the object. The inscription on the sign: PROHIBITED ZONE, construction and drilling work within a radius of 450 m is prohibited! Customer - Yaroslavl NGRE, address: Pechora, village. Power engineers.

GLOBE - 1.

On September 9, 1971, residents of some villages in the Ivanovo region suddenly felt the earth disappear from under their feet. Glass rattled in the houses, cows mooed in the barn. However, no one had time to really get scared. The ground vibrations lasted only a few seconds and ended as unexpectedly as they began.

A few days later, from rumors that were passed from mouth to mouth, the old-timers learned the reason for this unusual “natural phenomenon.” It was rumored that somewhere near Kineshma the military had exploded some kind of “terrible” bomb. And, supposedly, something didn’t work out for them, since the area of ​​the explosion was cordoned off by soldiers and no one was allowed to enter there. The cordon was soon lifted, but the ban on visiting berry places remained for a long time. What really happened on that September day, local residents, and along with them the rest of the population of Russia, found out 20 years later, when the secrecy stamp was removed from many events of the Soviet era. 57°30"59.6"N 42°36"41.1"E

As often happens, the word-of-mouth messages of that time largely corresponded to reality. It turned out that on that day, 4 kilometers from the village of Galkino, Kineshma district (Ilyinsk rural administration), Ivanovo region, on the left bank of the Shacha River, an underground explosion of a nuclear device with a capacity of 2.3 kilotons was carried out. This was one of a series of “peaceful” nuclear explosions carried out for industrial purposes. The experiment was carried out by order of the USSR Ministry of Geology and was codenamed “Globus-1”. The depth of the GB-1 well, in which the nuclear charge was placed, was 610 meters. The purpose of the explosion was deep seismic sounding along the Vorkuta-Kineshma profile.

The experiment itself went “without a hitch”: the charge detonated at the appointed time, equipment located both in the immediate vicinity of the test point and thousands of kilometers away regularly recorded vibrations of the earth’s crust. Based on these data, it was planned to identify oil reserves in the northern regions of the European part of the country. Looking ahead a little, I will say that it was possible to solve the task - new oil fields were discovered in the Vologda and Kostroma regions.

In general, everything was going fine until, at the 18th minute after the explosion, a gas-water fountain with the release of radioactive sand and water appeared one meter northwest of the charging well. The release lasted almost 20 days. Subsequently, it was found out that the cause of the accident was poor-quality cementing of the annulus of the charging well.

It is also good that as a result of the accident, only inert radioactive gases with a short half-life were released into the atmosphere. And due to dilution in the atmosphere, there was a rapid decrease in radioactivity in the ground layer of air. Therefore, just a few hours after the explosion at a distance of 2 kilometers from the epicenter, the dose rate did not exceed the natural background radiation. Water pollution in the Shacha River above permissible standards was observed at a distance of only a few tens of meters. And even then only in the first days after the accident.

Dry figures from the documents say that on the third day the maximum dose rate was 50 milliroentgen per hour, and on the 22nd day - 1 milliroentgen per hour. 8 months after the explosion, the dose rate at the site did not exceed 150 micro-roentgens per hour at the wellhead, and beyond - 50 micro-roentgens per hour, with a natural radiation background of 5-15 micro-roentgens per hour.

As it was written in the report on the experiment, “thanks to the well-coordinated work of the radiation safety service, none of the population or participants in the explosion were injured.” In general, this is true. No one was hurt. But only on that ill-fated day. For some reason, doctors from the nuclear industry do not like to talk about long-term and indirect consequences.

But they – the consequences – seem to have been there after all. “After this Globus, calves with two heads were born,” recalled Nadezhda Surikova, a paramedic from the village of Ilyinskoye. – Premature children began to be born. Miscarriages are now common, but when I started working, all the women nursed normally for the full term.” This evidence was published in 2002 by the newspaper Gazeta.

Nadezhda Petrovna is sure that two local children died from radiation sickness. The teenagers visited the site of the explosion two months later, and in the winter they both fell ill and suffered from headaches. They were taken to Ivanovo, where they were diagnosed with meningitis. Soon the boys were gone. The villagers don't believe in meningitis.

According to local authorities, the teenagers themselves are to blame for their death. Despite the ban, they made their way into the closed area and moved the concrete slabs that covered the mine. Although, it is difficult to imagine how they could cope with multi-ton blocks. Unless they were preparing over the years to turn into “Ilya Muromets” and “Alyosha Popovich”.

In addition, in populated areas located near the explosion site, the number of deaths from cancer has increased sharply. Moreover, not only in the 1970s. According to the chief physician of the regional oncology clinic, Emma Ryabova, the Ivanovo region still holds first place in Russia in terms of the number of cancer diseases.

The unfavorable environmental situation in the area of ​​the explosion still persists. In some ways it has even worsened over the years. According to Olga Dracheva, head of the radiation safety department of the Ivanovo Regional SES, in 1997 gamma radiation with a power of 1.5 thousand microroentgens per hour was recorded at some points on the site, in 1999 – 3.5 thousand, and in 2000 – already 8 thousand ! “Now the radiation power has dropped and is about 3 thousand microroentgens,” says Olga Alekseevna. “But everything indicates that isotopes continue to reach the surface.” This usually happens during floods - meltwater washes out contaminated soil and spreads it around.

The “lost place” near the village of Galkino has never gone unnoticed by the authorities. Back in 1976, two wells were drilled into the explosion zone to study the causes of the accident and the consequences of the explosion’s impact on the subsoil. Before drilling, three trenches were dug at the site. During the process of drilling and testing wells, drilling fluid and pumped water containing radioactivity (cesium-137 and strontium-90) were collected in these trenches. Upon completion of the research, the trenches and the entire contaminated area were covered with clean soil. Air pollution at the drilling site remained at background levels.

And in subsequent years, experts studied the area of ​​the Globus-1 explosion. In the 1990s, these expeditions became annual. According to data at the beginning of the 21st century, the situation in the area of ​​the explosion was as follows. Radioactive soil is located at a depth of 10 centimeters to one and a half meters, and in places where trenches are filled with soil - up to 2.5 meters. On the territory of the facility, the dose rate of gamma radiation at a height of 1 meter from the surface ranges from 8 to 380 microroentgens per hour. The highest readings are observed in limited areas and are due to opening to control the trench.

In 2002, the regional administration became concerned about the situation in the Kineshma district. A series of meetings were held at which a decision was made to preserve the explosion site. It is planned to straighten the bed of the Shacha River, pour clean soil at the explosion site, and lay new reinforced concrete slabs, on which, in turn, soil should be poured again.

Work at the Globus-1 facility was included in the Russian Radiation Safety Program and began in 2003. Whether they have been completed or are still ongoing, no one can say for sure.

Just as no one can say anything definite about the bright yellow tank trucks with badges announcing the radioactive threat, which drove towards the site throughout the summer months of 2005. The newspaper “Ivanovo-Voznesensk” reported this. The cars had license plates of the Tver, Murmansk and Voronezh regions, where, as is known, nuclear power plants are located. Journalists admit the possibility that some hazardous waste from the nuclear power plant was transported to the Ivanovo region. The regional authorities categorically deny this. However, none of the “interested” departments was able to find out what kind of cargo the tank trucks were carrying.

Single raid on the site of the nuclear explosion of the Globus-1 project.

On September 19, 1971, a nuclear explosion occurred in the north of the Ivanovo region. There were no mass casualties or destruction - the explosion was underground, this secret project was called "Globus-1" - one of the many underground nuclear explosions carried out in the USSR. Due to poor well construction, after the explosion, radiation-contaminated water, dirt and gases escaped to the surface. Now in this place there is a ZONE, which for 40 years has been collecting fruits in the form of the lives of too curious people. In some parts of the Zone, the radiation background exceeds the norm hundreds of times and being there in itself is dangerous, and to get there, you need to go through the forests, fields and abandoned villages full of animals and other dangers. I had to make this journey in December, so the weather still got in the way!

​December 2014, temperature +2, raining. I stand on the banks of the Volga and look into the distance. To get to the place, you need to cross the Volga, bound by loose, unreliable ice. Already at the very shore you can see the mines, but in the middle there are more of them and they are larger there. Conversations with local residents, who completely dissuade anyone from venturing onto the ice, do not add optimism, frightening them with stories about a recently drowned fisherman. If the ice cracks, it will be very difficult to get out, there are no strong edges now and the edges are very slippery, and the time before hypothermia will be only 7-10 minutes. In addition, I have a 30-kilogram backpack with me. After a short struggle between indecision and the desire to complete the task, the latter wins!

Having provided for a similar situation, I took with me an inflatable kayak “Taiga 280” from the “Volny Veter” company. Lightweight (5 kg) and compact, it inflates in 5 minutes. Together with an inflatable life jacket and pump, it fits into a bag slightly larger than a sleeping bag. I rock the kayak, tie on my backpack and move with brisk steps across the Volga. The thought is this: if I fail, then the life jacket will not allow me to drown, and the boat will not allow the cargo to sink, besides, getting caught on the sides will be easier to get out of the water than on slippery and loose ice. I cover 30 meters at a walk, when the ice begins to crumble and crack, I switch to a new tactic: resting my hands on the sides, I push the boat in front of me, ready to jump into it at any moment if the ice begins to move away from under my feet. Since the bulk of the body rests against the boat, the load on the ice is significantly relieved. But walking in this position is not very easy; every 20-30 meters you have to stop, straighten up, and rest. Water splashed the cargo, and I was also completely damp. We managed to cover the distance of 1300 meters in 40 minutes.

Approaching the other bank, I saw two people looking at me with great attention. It turned out to be a family living on the shore, in the village of Buzinikha. Seeing me through the window, they went out to look at the suicide crawling along the Volga, and even standing in the rain and wind for 20 minutes did not become an obstacle for the two women. After talking a little, scouting out the necessary information and hiding the boat in the bushes, I set off. There was already a lot of time. Suddenly I came across a fellow traveler going to Norskoye. Before reaching it, I turned into the forest, where I began to settle down for the night. It was already dark, I wanted to eat and dry myself. A fire, dinner and a short rest restored my strength. Until nightfall I walked through the surrounding forest, looking for beautiful spruce trees and wild boar roosts. In the evening, crossing the fields, he even tried to hunt. A pig on a spit would be very welcome! But, as fate would have it, he returned with nothing.

The alarm clock rang at 6 am, and I really didn’t want to get up. The incredible dampness, cold and darkness forced me to stay in my sleeping bag. The second time I woke up at 9, a lot of time was spent filming, taking photographs, breakfast, and getting ready. Passing through Norskoye, I talked with the local population. Again I found out a lot of new things for myself. What’s interesting is that there are a lot of disabled dogs in Norsk; they are missing half of their front paw. I saw 3 such dogs. The first thing that flashed through my head was that I was lost in a fight with wolves.

By evening the weather had deteriorated greatly. It got colder, a strong wind blew, and it started snowing and raining. Visibility dropped greatly, everything around became cloudy gray, and it became very difficult to navigate. The path to the village of Galkino led through fields that were already overgrown or were still being overgrown. Galkino itself was a sad sight. The collapsed, rickety houses looked like something out of a horror movie or computer game. Just look, a toothy monster will jump out of the nearest wrecked building at you. The picture of the post-apocalypse was completed by quickly rushing low clouds and blizzards walking across the field.

Spent the night not far from Galkino. He made a bed on a tree, lit a hot fire, and completely dried out. The forest is very dense and there is no wind in it, but from the sounds from the field and from the bending tops of the fir trees it was clear that the weather there was fierce. Snow kept falling from above. Somewhere in the distance you can hear the mooing of an elk, some small birds fly around, apparently trying to profit from some of the provisions. All these difficulties and wonderful weather significantly adjusted my schedule. I sat near the fire, looking at the map, and making plans for tomorrow. The IRP designed for a day, which I took with me for 3 days, was inexorably running out. Tomorrow we had to make a forced march and it was not an easy one.

On the third day I went to the Zone. I left my backpack in the forest where I spent the night and went light. A lot of snow fell overnight - about 15 cm and it became very difficult to walk. The snow was wet, heavy, and stuck to my boots. The path to the Zone ran through the forest, even in the fresh snow there were many footprints: hares, a fox, a couple of rednecks. The landscape is uneven, sometimes descending, sometimes ascending, the road twisted. In the end, I reached the place where there was a shift camp for workers carrying out the decontamination of the Zone. At home, I noted in advance the point where, according to the description, the Zone was located and was not at all surprised when it was not there. It took another two hours to look for her.

The Zone itself is a site on the river bank, overgrown with bushes and rare trees. Traces of work are visible at the site, with signs and small buildings all around. At the very entrance to the Zone there is an iron pillar made of pipe connecting elements, similar to an idol. The radiation around it is normal, but it looks impressive. In the middle of the zone there is an old, old pillar with a sign on which it says “Forbidden zone...” and also text that is no longer so easy to make out. There are several concrete pedestals with signs around it. There should be a “burial ground” somewhere nearby, but because of the snow it cannot be found. Not far from the sign there is a large pile (presumably soil), there is no desire to climb on it, especially remembering that it is the soil here that is radioactive, and the deeper it is, the greater the level of radiation.

In the very short time that I spent in the Zone, I managed to find a place where the radiation level was 1.8 μSv, which is about 10-15 times higher than normal and is dangerous. And this is on the very surface! There was no time to conduct experiments by digging up the soil; it was necessary to go back to return before dark to the place where I left the backpack with the equipment. As a farewell, I took a few photos, set a dot so that I knew where exactly this place was, and began to move away. A flock of small birds flew after me for 10-15 minutes, but then they fell behind. And although I tried to retrace my steps, it became even more difficult to walk. Afterwards, Galkino noticed that a wolf had recently followed in my footsteps. He came out from somewhere to the west of the village and followed my steps for a little more than a kilometer when I passed here about 3 hours ago. My tracks were already significantly covered with snow, the wolf tracks were absolutely clear.

I returned to the place where I left my backpack quite tired. In total, during this day we had to walk more than 35 km through difficult terrain and difficult weather conditions, half of this distance had to be carried by a 30-kilogram load. The saving grace turned out to be a thermos of hot sweet tea, wisely poured in the morning, and a piece of salted bacon, uneaten from the night before and already frozen. I ate, put on my backpack and headed back. The road back was difficult, in the dark and with strong winds. I had no food left, water was running out. But the main thing is that the assigned task (to find out where the Zone actually is) was completed! This invigorated the spirit, gave strength and confidence that we definitely needed to return there for more detailed research.

Visit to the Globus-1 facility a year later

Food during the raid

During the raid it was used:

1. IRP (B-4)
2. Buckwheat 1 package (100 g)
3. Rice 1 package (60 g)
4. Water 4.5 l + 0.8

Equipment

1. Inflatable kayak "Taiga 280" (Free wind)
2. Inflatable life jacket (Free wind)
3. Backpack “Defender 95” (Alloy)
4. Sleeping bag "Siberia" (Novatur)
5. Phoenix 2 watch (Garmin)
6. Military bowler hat
7. Thermos 0.5 l
8. Shoe covers OZK
9. Anti-slip shoe pads
10. Tent 3*3
11. First aid kit
12. Hunter Signal
13. Ax, knife
14. NVG 1PN74
15. Dosimeter "Quantum" (Soeks)
16. Binoculars
17. RPS system "Nemesis"
18. Knee pads
19. Raincoat tent
20. Short rug
21. Military flask

Fin. help the channel

Photos