Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast

Osjorsk (Russian Озёрск ) is a Russian city in the Chelyabinsk region, about 80 km north-west of the regional center of Chelyabinsk. The city lies on Irtjasch Lake and has 82 164 inhabitants (as of October 14, 2010 ).

As part of the nuclear armament program of the Soviet Union in 1945, the base No. 10 for several thousand scientists and engineers was established. The Surrounded by electric fences and security systems closed city was only later under the code name Chelyabinsk -40 ( a PO Box address ), then Chelyabinsk -65 is known. It was not until 2001, the town took off her code name and since officially called Osjorsk (literally about " city by the lake ").

Within the restricted area is the formerly secret Nuclear plant Mayak (Russian Маяк, Lighthouse ), was the first in the nuclear reactor of the Soviet Union into operation on 19 June 1948. In the plant began on 29 September 1957 one of the worst accidents in the history of nuclear technology. The nuclear accident was about 30 years to be kept secret because the heavier radioactive fallout completely came down on Soviet territory and in the 1950s were relatively few ways of registration services. Near Osjorsk is also the Lake Karachay, which is referred to as " the most polluted place on earth " by the Worldwatch Institute.

A few kilometers from the city, the nuclear power plant south Urals. Once the power plant should be built directly into Osjorsk. But since the plan was rejected, they had chosen a different location in the vicinity of the city for the power plant.

In Soviet times, there was in Osjorsk a big gulag. The Kuznetsk -ITL ( corrective labor camp ) was founded in October 1946 and existed until at least 1960. Warehouse management was located in the city of Chelyabinsk - 40th In stock up to 20,400 people were imprisoned, the. For construction work in connection with the state nuclear project were used in the extraction of natural resources, in the industrial, civil, water and housing, as well as in various industrial plants

Older houses in Osjorsk

Note: Census data