Back بحيرة كاراشاي Arabic بحيره كاراشاى ARZ Ҡарасәй (күл) Bashkir Lake Karachay CEB Karačaj Czech Карачай (кӳлĕ) CV Karatjaj (sø) Danish Karatschai-See German Lago Karachai Spanish Karatšai järv Estonian
| Lake Karachay | |
|---|---|
| Карача́й (Russian) | |
  Lake Karachay | |
| Coordinates | 55°40′42″N 60°47′59″E / 55.67833°N 60.79972°E |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Basin countries | Russia |
| Settlements | Ozyorsk |
Lake Karachay (Russian: Карача́й), sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, was a small lake in the southern Ural Mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility, located near the town of Ozyorsk (then called Chelyabinsk-40). Today the lake is completely infilled, acting as "a near-surface permanent and dry nuclear waste storage facility."[1]
The radioactivity of the lake is comparable to the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear accident of all time.
- ^ "Russia's Mayak continues clean-up of Lake Karachai". Nuclear Engineering International Magazine. Global Trade Media. 30 November 2016. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.