Kyshtym Background
After World War II, the Soviet Union lagged behind the United States in development of nuclear weapons, so it started a rapid
research and development program to produce a sufficient amount of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. The Mayak plant was built in a great hurry between 1945 and 1948.
Gaps in Soviet physicists' knowledge about nuclear physics at the time made it
difficult to judge the safety of many decisions. Also,
environmental concerns were not taken seriously during the early development stage. All six reactors
were on Lake Kyzyltash and used an open cycle
cooling system, discharging irradiated water directly back into the lake. [1] Initially Mayak was dumping
high-level radioactive waste into a nearby river, which was taking waste to the river Ob, flowing further down to the Arctic Ocean. Later on, Lake Karachay was used for open-air storage.[2]A storage facility for liquid nuclear waste was added
around 1953. It consisted of steel tanks mounted in a concrete base, 8.2 meters
underground. Because of the high level of radioactivity, the waste was heating
itself through decay heat (though a chain reaction was not possible). For
that reason, a cooler was built around each bank containing 20 tanks. Facilities for
monitoring operation of the coolers and the content of the tanks were not adequate.[3]