The South-Eastern Chord may become a "Moscow Pripyat"

At the same time, some secret details of this construction became known.

Irina Mishina

P rotiv "radioactive chords", as it was called by the people, made by people of 11 districts and from Nizhny Novgorod and Lefortovo to Bitsa and Butov. They gathered in an initiative group, in which today there are more than 50 people. People do not want their neighborhoods to be cut through by the round-the-clock buzzing eight-lane highway. However, the construction of the chord has already begun.

Novye Izvestia wrote in detail about the scandal associated with the beginning of the construction of the South-Eastern Chord.

However, eerie details associated with this construction surface almost every week.

The main mystery of the chord is that the mayor of Moscow openly admitted the presence of radioactive waste in the immediate vicinity of this construction site: “ In 2018, we decided to build the South-Eastern Chord. The decision was not easy. We are talking about a very complex and expensive project - a 28 km long highway with a bridge over the Moskva River and dozens of multi-level junctions. ”Further Sergey Sobyanin adds: “In the case of South-Eastern Chord, we face a unique, out of the ordinary problem - radioactive waste, which in the 50-60s, the Moscow Polymetals Plant stored in its backyard. Later, this contaminated area was returned to the city". At the same time, the capital's mayor promises: "During the construction period, constant radiation monitoring will be carried out and in case of detection of even the slightest traces of radiation, the contaminated soil will be removed from Moscow and placed in special storage facilities".

At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor (Russian state agency for health and consumer rights) officially admits on its website: "The site of radioactive contamination is preserved on the slope of the Moskva River in the area of the Polymetal Plant in the Southern Administrative District. Taking into account the large volumes of radioactive waste (volumes of at least 60 thousand tons) and significant decontamination costs so far source of funding has not been identified".

Further wonders and riddles begin. The construction site turns out to be an almost closed object behind barbed wire. It is closed to environmentalists, observers and even experts from the international organization Greenpeace. According to eyewitnesses, the construction site, surrounded by barbed wire, is guarded by people of Caucasian appearance, who are very aggressive, as well as by private security companies. The motive for super-secrecy turns out to be simple. It follows from the official response to the activists: “The situation is controlled by the FSUE Radon.

Indeed, work with soil in this area is supervised by FSUE Radon. For this study, according to a local deputy, funds were allocated from the budget in the amount of 80 million rubles. Official reports for the press are like a fairy tale for adults: according to Radon, in the construction site and in the vicinity there is "a slight excess of the radiation level" (it was established by the vigilant Radon). The counter shows 9 μR / hour.

However, in reality everything is not quite the way that FSUE Radon and the Moscow Road Construction Department would like. The fact is that a scandal broke out the other day. Blogger, publicist Maxim Novikovsky miraculously managed to penetrate this construction site, take photographs, collect material and take measurements of radiation, posting all this on social networks. After this post, a scandal erupted. The most paradoxical thing is that the blogger became the target of attacks by an initiative group from the Moscow City Duma, which positions itself as a community of public observers. What happened?

“I have lived in this area for a long time, I know Saburovo, Kashirskoye highway and the surrounding area very well. I know all the ins and outs there. In addition, my relatives worked at the polymetals plant. Both of them, husband and wife, received from the plant a good apartment in Tsaritsyno, but did not live long: both were "burned out" from blood cancer - lymphocytic leukemia. They were under some form of secrecy and under a nondisclosure agreement. But everyone knew: this enterprise, which is connected with the defense industry, is working with radioactive elements, in particular, with radioactive uranium”, - says Maxim Novikovsky. - Since I am a former local resident, it did not take much trouble for me to enter the protected area of the construction site by detour routes. After filming and measuring, I asked myself: if this chord is so harmless, why does the dosimeter record a background radiation of 1800 μR / hour on the earth's surface? For example, I will note that the radiation level around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is now much lower than it was after the accident, by about 10 thousand times - however, it is still too dangerous for a person to live there. The city of Pripyat, closest to the crash site, has been declared unfit for life for the next 24 thousand years. At the moment, in the city of Pripyat, the average radiation background is 101 microR / hour, in Chernobyl - 17 microR / hour, in Moscow - 21 microR / hour, and at the radioactive burial ground of the Joint Stock Company "Moscow Plant of Polymetals" of the Fuel Company "TVEL" State Corporation for nuclear energy "Rosatom" at the address: Moscow, Kashirskoe highway 49, dosimeters recorded 1800 microR / hour! And this is not a joke. On the air of the Russia-24 channel, Radon's sensors showed exactly this mark. A person dies at a dose of 1500 microR / hour, and here it is as much as 1800! ”- says top blogger Maxim Novikovsky.

We turned to the expert of the group "Safety of radioactive waste", engineer-physicist Andrey Ozharovsky. “Since March this year, FSUE Radon has entered the construction site. According to its representatives, the radiation and environmental situation is under control. But one revelation follows another. It all started with a scandal at a public hearing in the spring of 2019. There were presented maps that did not take into account that both slopes of the Polymetal plant - both the one going to the river and the one going to the railway - contain radioactive waste. Then we raised the issue of the need for a state ecological expertise. But they kept repeating to us and keep repeating that "there is no radiation". We are trying to prove that the radioactive burial ground is located under the bridge supports. It is alarming that neither experts nor observers are allowed to enter the construction site. FSUE Radon hired security guards who spoke Russian poorly, but were very aggressive. In response to my numerous inquiries to Rosatom with a request to organize public control, I received on May 15 this year. the only letter. It says: "The admission to the territory of the work site is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation". My reply letter with arguments in favor of a thorough examination of July this year. - no answer. In the meantime, we found Radium 500 meters from the construction site and reported it. There is no official reaction to this".

This is not surprising. From the late 1940s to the mid 1970s, hundreds of tons of radioactive ore were imported to the Polymetal plant. During the work, radioactive dust scattered everywhere, it reaches residential buildings. The public movement "Safety of radioactive waste" receives letters from local residents who are planning to move because of the sharp deterioration of the environmental situation. According to physicist Andrey Ozharovsky, the effect of inhaling such radioactive dust may not be instantaneous, but ultimately, it can lead to the onset of cancer. Now, according to the scientist, there is a lot of toxic radioactive dust around the construction site.

It is still difficult to judge the true scale of the radioactive disaster in the region of the South-Eastern Chord. The first burials of this once closed enterprise were on the slopes of the river. “The boundaries of the last burials of the radioactive burial ground no one remembers and does not know, because there was no information at the end of the 90s, the enterprise was going through hard times and, in fact, they could bury the slag everywhere, just to bury it. Many elderly employees of the plant have died a long time ago, and they hardly told anything because of a subscription to nondisclosure and fear", - says top blogger, publicist Maxim Novikovsky.

Under the contract, FSUE Radon was supposed to remove radioactive waste. “This export stopped recently. We observe only people in uniforms on the slope. The slope was covered with polyethylene. Do they really think in this way to protect people from radioactive dust?" - perplexed engineer-physicist, activist of the public movement "Safety of radioactive waste" Andrey Ozharovsky .

When it started raining, strange turquoise lakes formed around the slope, not far from the construction site. What are these natural wonders?

“Chemicals were buried there. When Radon dug up the waste, they mixed with water, and such "chemical lakes" were formed. We analyzed their content. Arsenic, lead, cadmium, zinc were found in them, among other things. These are poisonous carcinogenic substances. According to the results of our laboratory tests, their content in the environment in the area of the notch construction is almost ten times exceeded. When we contacted FSUE Radon about this, they answered us: "We do not deal with chemicals." I believe this is a criminal approach. This turquoise water was poured into the Moskva River. I saw dead fish at the drain. In the meantime, FSUE Radon, which was involved in cleaning this area, has already handed over the site to the builders”, - says Andrey Ozharovsky.

In June, local residents also took an interest in the turquoise lakes near the Moscow Polymetal Plant, where a bridge crossing is planned for the South-Eastern Chord. The activists delivered samples of this water to another laboratory - RegionLab. And the analysis showed the content of cadmium, lead and a number of other substances in concentrations that are dangerous to human health.

Greenpeace informed about the probable violation of the Ministry of Emergencies. Police soon arrived, but instead of reacting to the obvious violation, the activists were detained. The conclusion involuntarily suggests itself: the disclosure of all violations related to the construction of a notch is actually equated to ...a crime?

Earlier, the analysis of soil samples taken by Greenpeace together with the licensed company TechnoTerra showed that they plan to build the South-Eastern Chord directly on the foci of radioactive contamination and disposal of radioactive waste. "Cadmium, with lead, arsenic and their compounds found in "turquoise" lakes, in acute poisoning with these compounds cause pain in the abdomen, joints, cramps, fainting. Lead can accumulate in the bones, causing their gradual destruction, is concentrated in the liver and Discharge of such water into natural drains is known to be prohibited", - explains engineer - physicist Andrey Ozharovsky.

The soil sample also showed an excess of permissible concentrations for cadmium, arsenic, lead, copper. An increased activity of radium-226 and thorium-232 was also noted in the soil.

The positive decision of the State autonomous institution (GAU) Mosgorexpertiza, which permits the construction of a section of the South-Eastern Chord, contains a paradoxical statement: according to the results of soil and soil studies to a depth of 12 meters, they are classified by the level of chemical pollution with heavy metals and arsenic to the "permissible" category of pollution. However, experts have a different opinion.

"In one of its reports, Rospotrebnadzor admitted that in the construction site not far from the waste disposal sites of the Polymetal plant, there are about 60 thousand tons of radioactive waste. We do not know what happened to them, whether they were all removed and, most importantly, where The Federal State Unitary Enterprise Radon has left the construction site. The Moscow Road Construction Department is now transporting some soil under cover of secrecy. Where does it take it? What kind of waste? No information. The Russian branch of Greenpeace believes that the construction of a freeway on this site should not conducted without additional research of radioactive and chemical contamination. Our lawyers are sending a statement of claim to the court to bring Radon and the Moscow Road Construction Department to responsibility as third parties", - Greenpeace expert Rashid Alimov told NI.

A natural question arises about the reaction to the situation with the construction of a "radioactive chord" of deputies and other government officials. And this is where the fun begins. Initially, an initiative group of Communist deputies was created in the Moscow City Duma, headed by Pavel Tarasov, deputy head of the Communist Party faction in the Moscow City Duma. Its representatives stated that they intend to protect the interests of local residents and support the initiatives of environmentalists. But soon any initiative of social activists began to come to naught. At the same time, the deputies convinced that "everything is under control." But under whose? And after the publication in social networks of exclusive photos of Maxim Novikovsky and the data he made public about radiation in the area of the chord construction, according to the blogger, a real attack began on him: “It was an attack on the truth about the chord, on the story about the objective situation. The thought suggests itself that the deputies are interested in this construction and do not allow journalists and experts to approach the construction site, deliberately misleading everyone. They are only "PR" on the current situation, "- says blogger and publicist Maxim Novikovsky.

While this hasty construction is underway, thousands of people remain in obscurity, tormented by the question: what will happen to them next? But from the dilemma - which is more important: the chord or the health and safety of people? - in priority, apparently, the chord. Or "Moscow Pripyat", call it what you want.

P.S. The Russian branch of Greenpeace sent the protocols of radiation measurements in the construction area of the South-Eastern Chord to the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in Moscow and the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin with a demand to immediately take measures to protect the life and health of people from radiation hazards at the end of last year. No specific response has been received from the authorities. Still.