Word: chelyabinsk
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Chernobyl is only one of many examples of nuclear contamination and carelessness throughout the former Soviet Union. A devastating 1957 nuclear- waste explosion and subsequent dumping of contaminants near Chelyabinsk, 900 miles east of Moscow, is now thought to have released pollution totaling 1.2 billion curies, a unit measure of contamination. That compares with about 3 million curies from the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Says Murray Feshbach, co-author of Ecocide in the USSR: "The new evidence of widespread nuclear pollution is so incredible, it's hard to believe...
...deserted stretch of shoreline on a radioactive lake is not the ideal place to argue the merits of building a new nuclear power plant. This may explain why V.I. Fetisov, director of the Mayak nuclear-waste processing plant near Chelyabinsk, had little to say to the large man with silvery hair and thundering voice. "It doesn't seem to me," said the presidential candidate, "that we should build a power station of the type they had in mind. Absolutely not. Do you want to stick an atom bomb right next to Chelyabinsk...
...local big shots listened glumly. "I am for the departification of the army, the KGB and the factory." In Tula this message was so badly received that officials cut off power to Yeltsin's microphones for an outdoor speech, then smirked as the candidate struggled with a bullhorn. In Chelyabinsk last week, security agents were so irritated by the ecstatic welcome offered by a crowd gathered outside the opera theater where he appeared that they tried to stop Yeltsin's press corps from entering the building...
Such heavy-handed tactics serve only to strengthen Yeltsin's grass-roots support. In Perm and Chelyabinsk well-dressed local officials listened skeptically as Yeltsin addressed them. Outside the halls, however, large crowds carrying pro-Yeltsin banners and waving the white, blue and red Russian national flag cheered and applauded as Yeltsin's voice boomed from the loudspeakers. "I believe in the rebirth of Russia," Yeltsin said again and again. "How is it possible that in a country of 150 million people with such talent, such a huge territory, such rich resources, people should live so poorly?" Shouted a burly...
...squirmed in embarrassment as Yeltsin forced them to listen to the grievances of local folk. "Why is your vice-presidential candidate ((Alexander Rutskoi)) a Communist?" asked a gruff peasant. "Communists can work well," Yeltsin responded. "They can in essence be honest people." In the village of Muslyumovo, north of Chelyabinsk, where the fallout from nuclear waste and a 1957 nuclear disaster still pollutes the environment, Yeltsin was clearly moved by anguished demands for greater government response to the village's medical needs. Then, like a benevolent Czar in a Russian folktale, he promised he would sign a parliamentary decree declaring...