Russia: Threat of radioactive leak in Tobol River – Floodwaters headed for uranium mine

Environmentalists in Russia are sounding the alarm about the danger of a radioactive leak, as the waters of the overflowing Tobol River in the southern part of the Ural Mountains approach a uranium mine in the Kurgan region.

This region of Russia, as well as the northern part of Kazakhstan, with which it borders, are facing the worst floods in the last 80 years due to the rise in river levels, after the rapid – due to the unusually high temperatures this spring – melting of the snow and the heavy rains that fell on lands that had already been flooded before the winter.

Russian authorities recently ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents from the Kurgan and Orenburg regions as floodwaters rise.

Concern over uranium contamination of the Tobol River in Russia’s Kurgan Oblast

A new source of concern, however, as Russian investigative journalism website Agentsvo reported on Sunday, is the fact that the flooded zone also includes, according to local authorities, the Dobrovolnoye uranium mine in the village of Ukrainskoye, Kurgan Oblast, which, according to NS Energy Business estimates, contains about seven tonnes of uranium.

Environmentalists expressed to Agentsvo their concern about possible uranium contamination of the Tobol River, which flows through the surrounding area.

Sergei Eremin, head of a local environmental organization, said that – from a video taken by a local resident – there are indications that an old well, “which has been leaking uranium for 35 years”, may already be flooded.

As the expert of the Radioactive Waste Safety Program of the Russian Socio-Ecological Union explained, a uranium leak from the Dombrovolnoye mine will lead to an increase in the concentration of uranium salts in the Tobol River and thus may contaminate drinking water for local residents.

According to Agentsvo, environmental activists in the Kurgan region have been calling on the Russian authorities for years to ban uranium mining in the region, fearing contamination of the water table and the Tobol River with radioactive solution.

Days ago, local authorities told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the water level of the Tobol River had crossed the “dangerous level”, increasing by 123 centimeters in a 24-hour period.

“This is not just a flood, it is a real threat. So take children, the elderly, relatives with limited mobility and neighbors to temporary shelters or your acquaintances and friends. Collect your documents and valuables,” Kurgan regional governor Vadim Shumkov wrote last week on Telegram in a message to local residents.