"Uranium ore is a yellowish clay. It was taken to factories, shaken in water and the resulting slurry - pulp - was driven through a special filter cloth. Uranium salts settled on the filter, after which it was burned and the product was subjected to further processing. Later, the electrolysis method was used. The method of underground leaching became widespread much later and was not used in Maili-Say. What is radiation, no one really knew, precautions, according to our age-old tradition, were neglected. Like, what will happen to us? We are her vodka!
Nikolai Lipatovich Yaminsky told the following story. He, then a young guy, worked as a dosimetrist. Here they come with dosimeters to the 16th adit to take measurements, and on a heap of ore mined from the mine, several female workers sit and have lunch, spreading their "brakes" on newspapers. Passing by, the head of dosimetrists said: "Girls, do not sit here, there will be no children!" The next day, a crowd of women of different ages sat in this place. So that there are no children. Contraceptives were not so hot in those days ... Some unclear consequences of not touching, seeing or smelling, in those days they did not frighten anyone. As a result various forms cancer is the most common cause of death among former plant workers and their descendants. "
...
"What attracted people here? In a poor and hungry post-war country that built communism on the bones of its builders, Miley-Say was a piece of Europe, a bright spot and a model of this very communism. Earnings here were significant, and store shelves were full of goods. You can I don’t believe it, but I remember the shops as if they came off the screens of the ceremonial films of those years. Remember the fair from "Don Cossacks"? It was like that in the local stores! Pyramids of cans of stewed meat, condensed milk, salmon, crabs (who now knows what CHATKA?), Glass cones with white and pink marshmallows, marshmallows, striped, corrugated marmalade, bunches of smoked bream dripping with fat, and circles of sausages hanging on hooks, barrels with 3-4 varieties of herring, lots of cheeses, pots with mountains of sprat and cheese soaking in brine, huge cubes of amber Vologda oil, tea with an elephant! I was not interested in what came out of the bottles, but I remember why vodka was called a white head before. and materials, footwear and clothing, toys from the GDR and other, and other, and other ...
Now, few people know what a tarpaulin bag is. Imagine a bag the size of a third of a bag, sewn from tarpaulin - the one from which tarpaulin boots. With such bags in the late fifties - early sixties, our miners went to get a paycheck. True, the money before 1961 was of a different size and value. And nevertheless, some miners could buy "Pobeda", 401 or 403 "Moskvich" for a paycheck!
And society! As usual, when the Motherland needed it, the best were brought to the altar of the military-industrial complex. In the city, almost all of the intelligentsia had Moscow and Leningrad roots. Graduates the best universities, specialists of the highest class! Graduates of Miley-Sai schools went to study at universities in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev. And they entered, and graduated, and returned! "
"The Volga, Odessa and German Germans with their punctuality, cleanliness and diligence. Jews with their intelligence, ability to think, peculiarity of humor and speech! Crimean Tatars with the ability to equip amazing estates even on stones and grow there such that it is generally impossible to grow up. Armenians, who began to build a house from planting vines! Ukrainians with their famous bacon, Belarusians with their ingenuousness and straightforwardness, Russians with their broad soul! But what can I say, it's impossible to list all of them, representatives of more than 150 peoples lived in our city, and everyone invested in his best part national character."
"... Everything collapsed, as in the whole country, overnight, with the arrival of a" great reformer "with a satanic seal on his face. Then it rushed and rolled, with a whistle and hooting! Three drunks in a forest hut destroyed the Union, easily deciding over a bottle the fate of millions of people. (This is a wonderful expression - "to act in the night!".)
Again the people went to cities and villages to look for a better life ... Germans began to leave for Germany, Tatars - for Crimea, Russians - for Russia. And wherever there are no now Miley-sites. All over Great Russia, in Ukraine, in the Baltic states, in Israel, in Germany, in the USA and Canada. In Australia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates ...
In Germany, even an annual congress of Miley-Sayts gathers, which attracts several thousand of our former residents ... (I hope one of them will describe this.)
The independence of Kyrgyzstan has become an incredible disaster for the inhabitants of our small town. Independence from a good education, from information, from cultural values, from the absence of wild corruption. The first president, Akayev, built a country in which only thieves, bribe-takers and robbers are valued. And the main robber was the state and its president. The most shameless predator in the entire history of Kyrgyzstan was hidden behind the fine speeches and soft voice. "
| Country | Kyrgyzstan |
| Region | Jalal-Abad |
| Mayor | Sabyrbek Toktogulov |
| First mention | 1946 |
| Population | 22 853 people (2009) |
| National composition | Kyrgyz - 76.0% Russians - 10.4% Uzbeks - 7.4% Tatars - 3.8% |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: 41 ° 16'00 ″ s. NS. 72 ° 27'00 ″ E d. / 41.266667 ° N NS. 72.45 ° E d. (G) (O) (I) 41 ° 16'00 ″ s. NS. 72 ° 27'00 ″ E d. / 41.266667 ° N NS. 72.45 ° E d. (G) (O) (I) |
| Square | 122.16 km² |
| Height | 800-900 m |
| Former names | Miley-Sai |
| Postcode | 721100 |
| Telephone code | +996 3744 |
| City with | 1956 |
Mailuu-Suu (Kirgh. Mailuu-Suu) is a city of regional subordination in the Jalal-Abad region Kyrgyzstan.
Geography
The city is located 100 kilometers from the regional center Jalal-Abad and 550 kilometers from Bishkek... The city is located in a mountainous area in the floodplain of the Mailuu-Suu River at an altitude of 800-900 meters above sea level. Distance to the border of a neighboring state Uzbekistan is 24 kilometers.
History
Beginning in 1901, oil was extracted in the vicinity of Mailuu-Suu, which gave the name to the river, and later to the city (Mailuu-Suu is translated as "oil water", and Mailu-Sai as "oil gorge" or tract).
In 1929, in the Maili-Sai (Mailuu-Suu) tract, academician Fersman discovered radiobarite deposits. Development of the Mailuu-Suu field began in 1946 and continued until 1968. For 22 years (1946-1968), at the site of two hydrometallurgical plants near Mailuu-Suu, 10 thousand tons of uranium oxide-oxide were mined and processed.
Until 1968 Mailuu-Suu had the status of a closed city. By 1968, 22 thousand inhabitants lived there.
In 1968, the last mine and plant was closed.
In the town of Maili-Sai, military unit 12 of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR was located, which made it possible to monitor the activity of a potential enemy to monitor the activity of NATO's nuclear strategic forces. Even in 1991, the unit was technically well equipped and combat-ready.
On December 22, 1964, the Supreme Council issued an order National economy(VSNKh) of the USSR on the construction of the Maili-Sai electric lamp plant with a design capacity of 300 million pieces of electric lamps per year, including 200 million of normal lighting and 100 million pieces of automobile lamps.
In addition to the mines, two processing factories operated in Maili-Say, processing not only the maili-sai ore, but also the raw materials of the nearby mines - Shekaftar, Kyzyl-Dzhar and others, located in the Fergana Valley. Ore was also brought to Maili-Sai from East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. For work in mines and the construction of processing factories (and along the way, cities), at the end of the war, the Germans, taken from the Volga region, Tatars, taken from the Crimea, as well as all unwanted Soviet power.
At the end of 2002, the plant was sold to the V.A.V.S. holding. Near the city are the world's largest radioactive waste storage facilities. In 2006, the city was ranked as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world.
Population
According to the 2009 census of Kyrgyzstan, the population of the city was 22,853 inhabitants, including Kyrgyz - 17,357 people or 76.0%, Russians - 2,382 people or 10.4%, Uzbeks - 1,697 people or 7.4%, Tatars - 878 people or 3.8%.
Introduction
Radiation safety is a new scientific and practical discipline that has arisen since the inception of the nuclear industry, solving a set of theoretical and practical problems associated with reducing the possibility of emergencies and accidents at radiation hazardous facilities. The whole complex of tasks facing radiation safety is discussed below. The first task of radiation safety is to develop criteria: a) to assess ionizing radiation as a harmful factor of impact on individuals, the population as a whole and environmental objects; b) methods for assessing and predicting the radiation situation, as well as ways to bring it into line with the developed safety criteria based on the creation of a complex of technical, medical and sanitary and administrative-organizational measures aimed at ensuring safety in the context of the use of atomic energy in the field of human activity.
At the moment, there is a developed system of permissible limits for the effect of ionizing radiation on human body, formalized in the form of legislative documents of the Radiation Safety Standards (NRB).
But in the days of the existence of the USSR, they did not care much about safety because in these mines, captured Germans and the so-called "six-year-olds" worked in these mines to correct them with occupational therapy - that is, all sorts of people who were in captivity or in the occupied territory, who managed not to die there and could not explain how ... Uranium mining was carried out in almost all states of Central Asia. In this paper, I consider the small “closed” city of Maili-Sai, in the south of Kyrgyzstan, where uranium was mined during the Soviet era.
1. "Closed" city of Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is one of the former Soviet republics. On August 31, 1991, during the collapse of the USSR, the independence of Kyrgyzstan was proclaimed. Bishkek city is the capital of this state. More than three quarters of the territory of Kyrgyzstan is mountainous. Miley-Sai, aka Mailuu-Suu. A small town in the south of Kyrgyzstan, founded at the end of the war for the extraction and processing of uranium. The founder was Petr Petrovich Garshin, at that time the director of the enterprise PO Box 200. Huge deposits of radioborite in the Maili-Sai tract were discovered in 1929 by Academician Fersman, but then they were not used. Maili-Sai is located 100 kilometers from the regional center of Jalal-Abad and 550 kilometers from Bishkek. The city is located in a mountainous area in the floodplain of the Mailuusuu River at an altitude of 800-900 meters above sea level. The distance to the border of the neighboring state of Uzbekistan is 24 kilometers. Beginning in 1901, oil was extracted in the vicinity of Mailuu-Suu, which gave the name to the river, and later to the city (Mailuu-Suu is translated as "oil water", and Maili-Sai as "oil gorge" or tract). Development of the Mailuu-Suu field began in 1946 and continued until 1968. Already in 1946, there were two enrichment plants near the city: Hydrometallurgical Plant No. 3 and No. 7 (then it was called so - Moscow, PO Box 200). In Maili-Suu, for a period of 22 years (1946-1968), two hydrometallurgical plants produced and processed 10 thousand tons of uranium oxide-oxide. In addition to the mines, two processing factories operated in Maili-Say, processing not only the maili-sai ore, but also the raw materials of the nearby mines - Shekaftar, Kyzyl-Dzhar and others, located in the Fergana Valley. Ore was also brought to Maili-Sai from East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. On December 22, 1964, an order was issued by the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh) of the USSR on the construction of the Maili-Sai electric lamp plant with a design capacity of 300 million pieces of electric lamps per year, including 200 million normal lighting and 100 million pieces of automobile lamps.
2. City population
At the end of the war, the Germans, taken from the Volga region, the Tatars, taken out of the Crimea, as well as all those objectionable to the Soviet regime, were brought here at the end of the war to work in mines and to build enrichment factories (and, incidentally, cities). The exiled settlers began to be used in full for peaceful purposes. How many of them were killed as a result of use, now no one will say. Because nobody counted. They were buried in mass graves in the adjoining mountains, not really caring about monuments and tombstones. Old people say that there are twenty times more people there than in the official cemetery. And by the end of the war, German prisoners of war and the so-called "six-year-olds" began to enter for correction by occupational therapy - that is, all sorts of people who were in captivity or in the occupied territory, who managed not to die there and failed to explain how ... Now they are all, thank God , veterans and participants, and then, without thinking for a long time, they were "soldered" into camps for 6 years and sent to various unhappy places, in comparison with which the fascist concentration camps looked like pioneer ones. Miley-Sai until 1968 was a closed city not only for foreigners, but also for Soviet people... If relatives were going to visit any of the residents, a special permit was required. The procedure was lengthy, the candidate was checked as a future scout! The same applied to those wishing to work here. The world's largest radioactive waste storage facilities are located near the city. In 2006, the city was ranked as one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world. Oil has been produced in this area since 1901, and interest in uranium arose much later. And, as usual, first from the Americans, and only then from ours ... The Americans "stuck" to our uranium during the war, when they drove to the airfield near the village of Madaniyat their "aircobras" supplied by lend-lease. In the opposite direction, until 1945, there was a flow of uranium ore, which was collected in an open way and transported on donkeys to Madaniyat locals ... The Americans accepted ore at a price of $ 1 per khurjum (a saddle bag, roughly a sack). There was also an American store where the dollars could be exchanged for goods: kerosene, boots, tea, matches ... In NATO military documents of that time, along with the now well-known Arzamas-16, Melekes (now Dmitrovgrad in the Ulyanovsk region) and Chelyabinsk -40, where our uranium was used to make nuclear fuel for bombs and missiles, Miley-Say was on the list of priority targets for a nuclear strike. Well, then ours arrived, and the impudent Yankees gently flooded. But they managed to skim the cream ... There is a legend that the first American bomb, like the first Soviet one, was made from our uranium. To what extent this is true, I do not know. Practically all open exits, specialists in civilian clothes from the country of the evergreen dollar, have been raked out. Ours had to mine ore using the mine method. This is where our town was founded. Around there were charming mountains, overgrown with wild fruit and walnut forests, which were inhabited by wild boars, badgers, foxes and porcupines, dug up and down with uranium mines. What attracted people here? In a poor and hungry post-war country that built communism on the bones of its builders, Miley-Say was a piece of Europe, a bright spot and a model of this very communism. Earnings here were significant, and store shelves were full of goods. Pyramids of cans of stewed meat, condensed milk, salmon, crabs (who knows what CHATKA is now?), Glass cones with pink and white marshmallows, marshmallow, striped, corrugated marmalade, bunches of smoked bream dripping with fat, and circles of sausages hanging on hooks , barrels with 3-4 varieties of herring, lots of cheeses, pots with mountains of sprat and cheese soaking in brine, huge cubes of amber Vologda oil, tea with an elephant! In another section - bundles of matter, shoes and clothes, toys from the GDR and so on, and so on, and so on ... Now, few people know what a tarpaulin bag is. Imagine a bag the size of a third of a bag, sewn from tarpaulin - the one from which tarpaulin boots. With such bags in the late fifties - early sixties, our miners went to get a paycheck. True, the money before 1961 was of a different size and value. And nevertheless, some miners could buy "Pobeda", 401 or 403 "Moskvich" for a paycheck! And society! As usual, when the Motherland needed it, the best were brought to the altar of the military-industrial complex. In the city, almost all of the intelligentsia had Moscow and Leningrad roots. Graduates of the best universities, specialists of the highest class! Graduates of Miley-Sai schools went to study at universities in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev. And they entered, and graduated, and returned! Volga, Odessa and German Germans with their punctuality, cleanliness and hard work. Jews with their intelligence, ability to think, peculiarity of humor and speech! Crimean Tatars with the ability to equip amazing estates even on stones and grow there such that it is impossible to grow at all. Armenians who started building a house by planting vines! Ukrainians with their famous bacon, Belarusians with their ingenuousness and straightforwardness, Russians with their broad soul! But what can I say, it's impossible to list all of them, representatives of more than 150 peoples lived in our city, and each put into it the best part of the national character. Children of different nations made friends, fell in love, got married, gave birth to children with a unique set of bloods and languages. The hot sun and crystal air saturated with the smell of blooming ferulla, almonds, and mountain herbs were added to the blood. And a new, unique nationality was fashioned - Miley-Sayts. Morals reigned here strange, for the uninitiated. For example, a thing forgotten somewhere, a bag with a wallet and documents never disappeared. In cinemas, there have never been controllers at the entrance, and there has never been a single case that someone did not buy a ticket. Even we guys, whom God himself ordered to crawl everywhere and be present, hustled in line for tickets for the day's session, did not even think that we could just go into the hall and no one would stop. Even among the boys, it was indecent.
3. Uranium mining
In the mid-fifties, apart from the traditional one, a unique form of uranium “mining” was also practiced. The technology for extracting uranium from ore was quite simple and imperfect, and up to 50-60% of uranium salts remained in waste. Cake (processing waste) with a high content of uranium salts was taken to the tailing dumps. At the tailing dumps, this creamy mass under the influence of the hot sun was intensively "evaporated" and uranium salts appeared on the mud crust. Specially created brigades “swept” uranium salts from the hardened surface of the tailings into special rubber bags, and then poured them into barrels. Until 1968 Mailuu-Suu had the status of a closed city. By 1968, 22 thousand inhabitants lived there.
The "uranium" era for Mailuu-Suu ended in 1968, when the last mine and hydrometallurgical plant (seven) were closed. Unlike another GMZ - (troika), which was redesigned somewhat earlier into the Kirgizelectroizolit plant, the seven have accumulated a large number of radionuclides - that's why it was blown up.
But the era of nuclear confrontation did not end in 1968. In addition to uranium mining, the USSR used the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to monitor the activity of NATO's nuclear strategic forces. In the town of Maili-Sai, military unit 12 of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR was located, which made it possible to monitor the activity of a potential enemy. Even in 1991, the unit was technically well equipped and combat-ready. By 1968, richer deposits were discovered in Krasnokamensk (Transbaikalia), Stepnogorsk (Kazakhstan), Uchkuduk (Uzbekistan), near Kzyl-Orda (southern Kazakhstan). There, the uranium content was richer, and the extraction was easier. And the plant was transferred there. And the Western Hydro-Metallurgical Combine, PO Box 200, day and night, in three shifts, without holidays and weekends, produced uranium concentrate for the nuclear shield of the Motherland. In Maili-Say, for 22 years of operation (1946-1968), two hydrometallurgical plants produced and processed 10 thousand tons of uranium oxide. There are 23 tailing dumps with a total volume of 2 million cubic meters of radioactive waste and 13 dumps of radioactive and overburden rocks with a volume of 845.6 thousand cubic meters. The total area of the tailing dump in Maili-Sai is 432.0 thousand m2, of which 14 tailing dumps and 12 dumps are located directly within the city. The total activity of all Maili-Saya tailings is 5 thousand curies. This city is unique: nowhere else in the world is there such a number of uranium tailing dumps as in Maili-Sai. Think about these numbers. Behind them are hundreds and thousands of human lives. Those who died during the construction of a combine, mines, city. Those who were dumped in the mines, who were poisoned in these mines with radon, hydrogen sulfide, methane. Those who every day received their share of radiation in the mines, at the concentration factories, when transporting ore from the mines to the GMZ, and just living in the city.
Uranium ore is a yellowish clay. It was taken to factories, shaken in water and the resulting gruel - pulp - was driven through a special filter cloth. Uranium salts settled on the filter, after which it was burned and the product was subjected to further processing. Later, the electrolysis method was used. The in situ leaching method became widespread much later and was not used in Maili-Say. What is radiation, no one really knew, precautions, according to our age-old tradition, were neglected. Like, what will happen to us? We are her vodka! Nikolai Lipatovich Yaminsky told the following story. He, then a young guy, worked as a dosimetrist. Here they come with dosimeters to the 16th adit to take measurements, and on a heap of ore mined from the mine, several female workers sit and have lunch, spreading their "brakes" on newspapers. Passing by, the head of dosimetrists said: "Girls, do not sit here, there will be no children!" The next day, a crowd of women of different ages sat in this place. So that there are no children. Contraceptives were not so hot in those days ... Some unclear consequences of not touching, seeing or smelling, in those days they did not frighten anyone. As a result, various forms of cancer are the most common cause of death among former plant workers and their descendants. No, the miners, of course, were treated later. In the well-known Moscow sixth clinic, there they also treated Chernobyl victims. But miners and workers of the State Museum of Fine Arts, despite the treatment, passed into the jurisdiction of the heavenly chancellery quite often.
By the end of the plant's work, buses with passengers were driving around the city, and in front of them were dump trucks with ore. To prevent radioactive dust from flying out of the body, the ore was abundantly moistened. Often, it came from the mine in a semi-liquid state. And now a dump truck with ore is driving, water, saturated with radionuclides, runs from the body onto the road, and cars and people walk along it, children are being taken in strollers ...
Below, in the satellite image, you can see the central part of the city, sandwiched in the gorge of the mountains.
There is a riot of colors, sounds and smells in the mountains. Wild apple trees, pears, cherry plums, hawthorns - red and yellow, almonds, wild cherries, pistachios ... And tulips, crows, irises, buttercups, bells ... Some kind of shrubs covered with small flowers, exuding a stupefying honey smell. .. Bird hubbub, cursing, trills, screams ... Crazy shouts of the oriole, cooing turtledoves, chirping of sparrows, rumbling hoopoes, ke-ke-ke-kanye of chippers ... Spring is the most wonderful time of the year with us! But the rest of the times are beautiful in their own way. Hot summer, with mountains of vegetables and fruits; autumn, with a mild warmth, hunting and picking nuts in the mountains, a magnificent Indian summer, lasting until mid-November; short and unpredictable winter ... In general, paradise is not paradise, but the places here are amazing and unique, despite the incredible summer heat, remoteness from cultural centers and ... uranium.
4. Radiation safety
Uranium in any form poses a hazard to human health. Moreover, the chemical toxicity of uranium is more dangerous than its radioactivity. Uranium is a general cellular poison that affects all organs and tissues; its action is due to chemical toxicity and radioactivity. Maximum concentration limit for soluble uranium compounds is 0.015 mg / m3, for insoluble compounds - 0.075 mg / m3. Major pollution control measures air environment dust in the mining and processing of uranium: mechanization of processes, sealing equipment, the use of wet methods of processing raw materials. Operations at radiochemical plants are carried out remotely, using biological protection. All isotopes and compounds of uranium are toxic, teratogenic (acting on the fetus during pregnancy) and radioactive. Uranium is known to emit alpha, beta and gamma radiation. Alpha radiation is the most dangerous factor, since it is retained by tissue cells and leads to changes at the cellular level. Each radionuclide has its own power engineering. The main danger uranium poses to miners of uranium mines, mines for the extraction of polymetals, coal mines (especially with brown coal), as well as workers of uranium enrichment factories. Other populations may be exposed to uranium (or its daughter products such as radon) by inhaling dust or ingesting food and water. The content of uranium in the air is usually very small, but workers in factories producing phosphorus fertilizers or residents of regions near nuclear weapons production or testing facilities, residents of areas in which weapons with depleted uranium were used during military battles, or residents near power plants or heating plants on a stone coal, uranium mines, enrichment plants and uranium enrichment and fuel rod production plants may be exposed to uranium. Almost all the uranium that has entered the body is quickly removed from it, but 5% is absorbed by the body if a soluble uranyl ion has been ingested, and only 0.5% if an insoluble form of uranium (its oxide) has been ingested. However, soluble uranium compounds are removed much faster than insoluble ones. This is especially true for the absorption of dust by the lungs. Uranium that enters the bloodstream bioaccumulates and remains in the bones for many years (due to its tendency to form phosphates). Uranium cannot penetrate the body through the skin. With a large consumption, uranium damages the kidneys, since it is a toxic metal (apart from its radioactivity, it is rather weak). Uranium is also a reproductive poison. Radiological effects are localized due to low mileage α- particles formed during the decay of 238U. It has been established that uranyl ions, UO2 +, included in uranium trioxide, uranyl nitrate or other compounds of hexavalent uranium, cause birth defects and damage to the immune system in laboratory animals. Uranium does not lead to cancer in humans, but its decay products, especially radon, can cause cancer. Isotopes such as strontium-90, iodine-90 and other fission products do not arise by themselves from uranium, but they can enter the human body during some medical procedures, in contact with spent nuclear fuel or fallout after testing atomic weapons. Cases of accidental inhalation of high concentrations of uranium hexafluoride resulting in death have been reported, but they are not related to uranium per se. Finely ground uranium metal is fire hazardous due to its pyrophoricity and the spontaneity of small uranium particles to spontaneously ignite in air even at room temperature. 5. Toxicity of uranium 6. Safety precautions when working with uranium uranium radiation safety kyrgyzstan Uranium metal, especially when micronized, is pyrophoric and can ignite spontaneously. As a result of combustion, uranium oxide smoke is produced, which easily penetrates the human body, which can lead to poisoning. Very finely divided uranium metal (or uranium hydride) can ignite with a flash. Therefore, finely crushed metal "uranium (powder, sawdust, cotton wool, waste) should be stored in a fire-safe place: it is necessary, if possible, to keep the materials in an atmosphere of a protective gas or liquid (for example, under oil), and in the latter case, the liquid should cover uranium completely. The protruding parts light up easily just above the meniscus of the liquid. The machining of uranium should, if possible, be carried out on machines installed in boxes in an argon or helium atmosphere. A respirator must be worn when cutting a compact piece or when working with uranium powder. The following methods are suitable for the elimination of uranium metal residues: Fusion into a compact piece in a high vacuum or in a BaC12 melt. ... "Wet combustion" under water with a jet of hot steam. ... "Dry burning" on a steel plate with a well-working draft. Dissolution in HNO3 to form a UO2 (NO3) 2 solution. The extinguishing of burning uranium should be carried out as far as possible without water. Dry sand, table salt, graphite powder, or special dry powder extinguishers can be used. A particular explosion hazard occurs when uranium metal or uranium hydride is sprayed into air. The lower explosion limit is 45-120 mg / l. Uranium powder can explode very strongly when treated with halogenated hydrocarbons, for example, when defatting with carbon tetrachloride, so one should be careful not to use trichlorethylene for defatting uranium metal, while using dichlorethylene is safe. When uranium is treated with ether with an admixture of peroxides, it can an explosion occurs. Copper filings should be placed in ether to prevent the formation of peroxides. When pressing uranium powder into compact lumps in hydraulic press an explosion may occur inside the mold. Therefore, it is advisable to carry out such work behind a protective screen. When reducing uranium halides to metal in a closed vessel, especially if the raw material is taken, too high a pressure can develop, as a result of which the reactor may explode. Therefore, the recovery should always be carried out behind a protective screen and the closed reaction vessel filled with a substance should be protected from jolts, impacts and premature heating. A very violent explosion can occur when various U-zirconium alloys are dissolved or etched with nitric acid containing HF. This can be avoided by mixing HF with HNO3 at least in a 4: 1 molar ratio. The following rules have been defined for working with uranium and its compounds: Never pick up solutions by mouth through a pipette. Wear gloves (surgical rubber). Wear protective clothing (in special cases special footwear). If there is a danger of inhalation of dust from uranium compounds, wear a dust mask. Never smoke or eat in the laboratory. Keep the workplace absolutely clean. The following concentrations on surfaces are admissible: 134 μg / cm2 238U, 21 μg / cm2 235U, 4.72 ng / cm2 233U. Always ventilate the work area well. If possible, work in a dry chamber. Workplaces, rooms and clothing should be periodically checked for α- activity. Special care should be taken if supercritical amounts of the fissile isotopes 233U and 235U are to be used. The critical state in a rather complex way depends on the geometry, concentration of uranium and the moderator and the material of the reflector. Based experimental research the values of the minimum critical mass, that is, the amount of uranium which, under favorable conditions, corresponds to the critical state, have been established. For 233U solutions, the critical mass is 591 g, for 235U solutions - 856 g. If possible, the amount of uranium should be limited when working in a laboratory to half of these values or less. In this case, one can, to some extent, not be afraid of a critical state, since even if by chance there is still the same amount of fissile material in the laboratory, then the critical mass will not be reached. If it is impossible to avoid working with supercritical quantities, for example, with weighed portions of the order of kilograms during the enrichment or reduction of metal, special precautions must be taken during the experiment. Of course, you should involve a specialist. This must be taken especially seriously, since this is an extremely insidious phenomenon. 7.Prevention of uranium poisoning
The prevention of uranium poisoning in production involves the continuity of technological processes, the use of sealed equipment, the prevention of air pollution, the treatment of wastewater before it is released into water bodies, medical monitoring of the health of workers, the observance of hygienic standards for the permissible content of uranium and its In case of damage by uranium (VI) fluoride - immediately abundant washing of the affected skin with water and mucous shells. Washing 2% solution bicarbonate sodium. Soda inhalations, lotions, baths. At hit into the stomach burnt inside magnesia, gluconate calcium, slimy decoctions. Inhalation oxygen, carbogen. At spasm voice crevices - atropine (1: 1000 - 0.5 ml). With indomitable vomiting - chlorpromazine i / m (0.5% - 0.5 ml). Appointment of calcium gluconate, calcium chloride (10% - 20.0 ml with 40% glucose - 20.0 ml). Cleansing enemas, diuretics - fonurite 0.25 g. Conclusion
It is probably no secret to anyone that entering the 21st century is unthinkable without such a source of energy, which is atomic nucleus... For mankind, those huge reserves of energy that are contained within the nuclei are practically inexhaustible. If, under the conditions of the current growth of the Earth's population, the prompt transition to a nuclear energy source is not made, then, in the end, the day will come when the last drop, a handful of natural fuel, will burn out in furnaces and stoves, and from this fateful day the history of mankind will begin to advance rapidly to its logical conclusion (or maybe everything will start all over again, as in primitive times and ...?). In order to appreciate everything pros and minuses , of which there are probably as many as pluses , but arising in completely different conditions, it is necessary to look at the present state of affairs in the field of the use of atomic energy. You should also pay Special attention for safety in the extraction of uranium and other minerals that are so necessary in our time. After all, the people working in the mines are no longer prisoners of war or forced migrants, but specialists in their field. Bibliography
1. U. Ya. Margulis. Nuclear energy and radiation safety. M., Energoatomizdat, 1988. Brief Medical Encyclopedia. In 2 volumes / Ed. Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences V.I. Pokrovsky. M .: NGO Medical encyclopedia, Kron-Press B. Lewin. Genes: Per. from English-M .: Mir, 2009. Radiation Safety Standards (NRB-76.87) and Fundamentals of Sanitary Rules (OSP-72/87). M. (as amended), Energoatomizdat, 2006.
But the era of nuclear confrontation did not end in a year. In addition to uranium mining, the USSR used the mountains of Kyrgyzstan to monitor the activity of NATO's nuclear strategic forces. In the town of Maili-Sai, military unit 12 of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR was located, which made it possible to monitor the activity of a potential enemy. Even in 1991, the unit was technically well equipped and combat-ready.
In addition to the mines, two processing factories operated in Maili-Say, processing not only the maili-sai ore, but also the raw materials of the nearby mines - Shekaftar, Kyzyl-Dzhar and others, located in the Fergana Valley. Ore was also brought to Maili-Sai from East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria. At the end of the war, the Germans who had been taken out of the Volga region, the Tatars taken out of the Crimea, as well as all those objectionable to the Soviet regime were brought here at the end of the war to work in mines and to build enrichment factories (and, incidentally, cities).