When the Soviet Union tried to reverse rivers flow with nuclear bursts

About 100 kilometers from the Russian city of Krasnovisersk, west of the Uralian Mountains, is a strange lake that is not connected to any river.

It is the « nuclear lake », a remnant of a time when the Soviet Union was trying to reverse the flow of rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean and bring water to the thirsty south.

Rusty signs warning of radioactivity are the only visible indication left over from the ultrasound design.

The nuclear lake, the BBC reports, was created at one point on February 23, 1971, when three nuclear bombs were fired at the same time at a depth of 127 meters. They had 15 kilotons each, about as much as the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.

The explosion opened a pit with a diameter of 600 meters that eventually filled with rainwater. But the crater was considered too small and the project did not go through the next phase.

The experiment, code -named « Taiga », was part of the USSR’s broader effort to peaceful use of nuclear explosions in construction projects.

In this case, a series of underground explosions is supposed to open a large channel that would rebuild part of the Petos River to the Kama River flowing into Volga. Instead of flowing to the uninhabited north, the water would reach densely populated areas of Central Asia and southern Russia.

Similar diversion projects at thousands of kilometers were designed not only for the stone but also many more rivers.

However, although the USSR chose nuclear devices that would minimize radioactivity, nuclear lake explosions were perceived even in distant countries such as the US and Sweden, whose governments accused Moscow of violating the Treaty.

Old idea

The idea of ​​diverting rivers from the north to the South had appeared decades earlier. Among other things he had been suggested by writer Igor Demchenko at book which published in 1871 entitled « On the flood of the Arali-Kaspian plains to improve the climate of neighboring countries ». The vision took a push of Stalin in the 1930s.

For the Soviet leadership, « this huge amount of water that flowed towards the Arctic Ocean was not going somewhere where it would be useful, » Douglas Watner, a historian at the University of Arizona, who specializes in Soviet environmental policy, tells the BBC.

« It was a huge resource. That is why there was always this tempting idea that they could find a way to use it. « 

Hundreds of millions of rubles were spent in the 1970s and 1980s in the ambitious program, featuring nearly 200 research institutes, companies and organizations. According to some estimates, about 68,000 people worked in the effort.

Siberian rivers would be channeled to the lake of Arali who was deprived (EPA)

In Soviet ideology, moreover, nature was something that man could tame and rationalize. The giant project would also give prestige to the country at a time of psychopathic competition with the US.

And the water that would enter the north could save Arali, the Caspian and the Azov Sea, which were in danger of falling down the level of irrigation.

« This period brought the development of irrigated agriculture and made it clear that our aqueous resources were inadequate, as populations were growing and existing production technologies demanded large quantities of water, » says Michal Bolgov of the Russian Institute of Water.

In addition to Volga, the designs also concerned two rivers of Siberia, Ob and Hirtis. A series of nuclear explosions would open a 1,500 -kilometer channel and bring 10% of the water of the two rivers to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

A Communist Party Resolution in May 1975 predicted that the water would reach Central Asia in 1985 and that the whole plan would be completed by 2000.

Chernobyl’s role

None of this happened. Disagreements of scientists and experts influenced public opinion in the 1980s. In his work « Ballad for Freedom, the Soviet poet Fazil Icander wrote: » It is completely impossible to know what is happening on the head of the regime / if they want to turn his north. « 

The concerns about the destruction of biotopes and climate change came to add funding, bureaucratic and technical obstacles.

The last nails in the coffin of the ambitious plan were probably entered with Chernobyl’s nuclear crash, which brought concerns about the environment on the political agenda. It also had an astronomical financial cost that limited the available funds. Four months after the incident, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev canceled the program.

However, the idea of ​​peaceful nuclear explosions did not die with the Soviet Union in 1991. Russian government officials continue to defend the plan, as it happened in 2008, when then -Mayor Moscow Yuri Luzkov published a book by Moscow.

According to Paul Josephson, a professor of Russian and Soviet history at the Colvegian College in Maine, the idea of ​​reversing rivers can only revive in the future, possibly to supply water to China, which is facing a serious water scarcity problem in its northern areas.

« Russia is a resource empire – it is trying to sell its resources, » the historian said. « It would therefore make sense to Russia, at some point in the future, he will work with the Chinese to transport water from Siberia to rural areas of northern China. »