[GOPJ]

He stood up and began to tell them all about the way that Russia had conserved the waste by mixing them into concrete used to make schools and hospitals. First one scientist jumped to his feet to call to him “Please tell me this isn’t true!” then another. Pandemonium ensued as the audience recoiled in horror. My friend sheepishly said that Russia didn’t understand the health impacts very well and assumed that dilution with concrete was sufficient and believed that all the furor in the west about what to do with nuclear waste really had more to do with an unwillingness to waste valuable resources.

OMG, is that a true story?

[ransomnote]

Yes. That was my friend - a Russian immigrant to the US. He became a citizen. He was ashamed by the fact that they were proud of this ‘accomplishment’.
Russia’s scientific history is littered with such seemingly impossible contradictions.
Here’s a typical story of Russia’s nuclear storage travails from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster_

“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 within that lake Schlager, Neil (1994). Initially Mayak was dumping high-level radioactive waste into a nearby river, which was taking waste to the river Ob, flowing farther down to the Arctic Ocean. Later on, Lake Karachay was used for open-air storage.[1]”

So in addition to using ‘open cycle cooling’ (running fresh water into the plant and pumping the radioactive water bck out into the lake) they would just back trucks up to lakes and dump the nuclear sludge in. That particular lake suffered a chemical explosion that blew radioactive waste into the surrounding area and knocked down trees (visible from satellite photos):

“Because of the secrecy surrounding Mayak, the populations of affected areas were not initially informed of the accident. A week later (on 6 October) an operation for evacuating 10,000 people from the affected area started, still without giving an explanation of the reasons for evacuation. People “grew hysterical with fear with the incidence of unknown ‘mysterious’ diseases breaking out. Victims were seen with skin ‘sloughing off’ their faces, hands and other exposed parts of their bodies.”[6] It was Zhores Medvedev who revealed the nature and extent of the disaster to the world.”

When a lake they were dumping in became heavily radioactive, they decided to fill it in with rocks and dirt (bury it). But their scientists said that this would force radioactivity into the ground water of the region so the problem was never corrected. This was a long time ago so when I checked on it recently, I find articles saying that more open ponds and lakes are being used to ‘store’ radioactive waste. Here’s an example from 2010:

“The most catastrophic situation is in the zone of Mayak Production Association which still dumps and stores radioactive wastes in open waters of the lakes Kyzyltash, Karachay, Old Swamp and Tatysh in Asanovskih marshes, as well as in four water reservoirs of Techensky Cascade, surrounded by wetland. The banks of the river Techa are also contaminated.” http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/08/15/12391.shtml

Parts of the country are contaminated with radioactive waste and that particular article was talking about a heat wave and drought that was kicking up dust and spreading radioactive contaminants further. Then contaminated forests catch fire in the summer heat and more radiation is blown across the continent. Amazing and tragic. Rarely are the people informed and often they are not protected or treated.