A river flows

Those affected by radiation in the area of ​​the Techa River in the Chelyabinsk region and the environmentalists representing their interests filed a lawsuit against Rosatom, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the government as a whole due to the fact that they are taking practically no measures to protect people from radiation. Radioactive waste from the Mayak plant has been entering the Techa River for more than 60 years. There are currently four villages along the river, whose residents, who have not been resettled anywhere, continue to be poisoned by this waste. The resettlement began in 2006 on the initiative of Rosatom, but only one village out of four, Muslyumov, and still some people remained near the river. In addition, as one of the authors of the lawsuit, Gilani Dambaev, said at a press conference, “the newly built village of Novomuslyumovo, where people were resettled, is located only two kilometers from the river.” When relocating, families were forced to move out because the new houses simply could not accommodate large families. As a result, according to Dambaev, residents, out of desperation, transport their old houses, already thoroughly saturated with radiation, to Novomuslyumovo on boards. Residents and environmentalists will demand that the court oblige the departments to ensure the protection of people from radiation and, above all, to erect a so-called sarcophagus along the entire length of the Techa, which would isolate the river from people and animals.

The claim was previously sent to the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow, however, as Nadezhda Kutepova, a lawyer and representative of the Ecodefense group in the closed city of Ozersk in the Chelyabinsk Region, where the Mayak plant is located, said, the claim was assigned to a judge there who was on vacation at that time. and the judge, having returned from vacation, seemed to send the claim back to correct the errors, but the plaintiffs themselves did not receive this court ruling. As a result, the claim was dismissed due to the plaintiffs' failure to comply with the deadline for correcting errors. Now the claim will be considered in the Moscow City Court on September 29.