On April 26, the world commemorates the , the deadliest nuclear disaster in human history that unfolded 38 years ago.
The USSR authorities the catastrophe for days, causing radiation exposure for nearly and thousands of deaths in what is now Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, as well as irreparable damage to Europe’s environment.
Russia marks the Chernobyl anniversary as its atomic agency Rosatom faces accusations of covering up yet another nuclear incident involving the flooding of its uranium mills in Siberia.
In April, massive floods devastated dozens of Russian far-eastern regions. The city of Orsk in the Orenburg region from the disaster after a dam on the on April 5.
By April 9, the flood reached the Kurgan region, including the village of , forcing .
This village’s location near the uranium deposits and mills led to concerns about potential radioactive pollution of the Tobol River waters.
Rosatom repeatedly dismissed these fears as “Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation.”
On April 20, Rosatom that the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit is not affected by the flood, because it, like other deposits in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region, is located “far from the river, on a hill.”
Dinis Ezhurov, general director of the Dalur company, which is part of Rosatom's mining division, that the flood will not affect uranium production at the Dobrovolnoye deposit, because its production sites are “reliably protected.”
On April 23, Rosatom that uranium mills in the Kurgan region of Russia are located on a hill and have not been affected by the flooding.
“The fields of JSC Dalur are located on a hill and away from the water. The flood did not affect them. There is no threat of flooding.”
Rosatom later to TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency that “[we] are talking about all wells, both spent and operating.”
These claims are likely false.
After analyzing satellite images of the flooded area, Russian and Western investigative journalists concluded that parts of Rosatom’s uranium mills have submerged and are covered with water.
Russian environmentalists warned that this could lead to the release of the radioactive solution into the Tobol River, which to hundreds of thousands of residents in Russia’s Kurgan region, before flowing into the Arctic Ocean.
On April 23, investigative journalists at a Russian independent news outlet in exile, that satellite images confirmed the flooding of part of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit in the Zverinogolovsky district.
compared the satellite images by Mark Krutov, the editor of VOA’s sister organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and by Vadim Shumkov, the governor of the Kurgan region.
A comparison of 's satellite images of the Zverinogolovsky district taken on April 20, 2024, and published by Krutov next to of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit shows that the territory of the deposit and wells was partially flooded.
Satellite images on April 20 by Kurgan Governor Shumkov confirm the flood zone on the territory of the Dobrovolnoye deposit.
The Dalur company representatives demonstrated the map of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit during the public hearings in the assembly hall of the village of Zverinogolovskoye in 2019.
Alexej Schwarz, an and environmental activist who studies uranium mining in the Kurgan region preserved a video fragment of that presentation .
According to Schwartz, the flood zone old and new uranium mining wells.
Schwartz told Polygraph.info that Rosatom uses the cheapest method of uranium extraction in the Kurgan region — , which also produces large amounts of radioactive waste.
“Thousands of wells are drilled to a depth of 400 meters, sulfuric acid is poured in, and the uranium is dissolved,” Schwartz said, explaining the in-situ leaching process.
Schwartz believes the flooding of the Dobrovolnoye deposit spread , chemical elements that release radiation, across the earth's surface in a large wave. This wave will soon leave the Kurgan region and reach the neighboring region — the Tyumen region — and other associated rivers.
Tobol River is part of the Tobol-Irtysh-Ob-Kara Sea Drainage basin ecosystem flowing into the Arctic Ocean.
Andrey Ozharovsky, Russian nuclear physicist, and antinuclear campaigner, commented on the likelihood of the uranium washed away by the Tobol River floodwaters ending up in the Arctic Ocean.