130 



the Yenisey River for cooling, and have contaminated the river 

 with cesium, strontium, and other radioisotopes for hundreds of 

 kilometers downstream. One of these reactors remains operational 

 today . 



Even though these facilities are not in the Arctic, their 

 impact has been observed in the region. All watersheds from 

 these sites flow to the Arctic Ocean, and waste from the polluted 

 Techa River reportedly was discovered in the Arctic as early as 

 1951. Moreover, the waste handling practices at these sites vers 

 all too typical ^ Soviet attitudes toward nuclear safety and the 

 •nvironiBent. 



The greatest single source of radioactive contamination of 

 the Arctic environment has been from nuclear weapons testing, 

 especially atmospheric testing at the Novaya Zenlya test sits in 

 the Arctic from 1955 to 1962. About half of the USSR's 

 approximately 200 atmospheric tests were conducted at Novaya 

 Zemlya. Virtually all of their highest yield explosions were 

 conducted there, with a total yield of over 300 megatons. Among 

 these was the world's largest explosion in l961~approximataly 55 

 megatons, over 3,000 times the yield of the Hiroshima explosion. 

 In addition to sometimes severe local contamination from fallout. 



