Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast

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Ozyorsk or Ozersk (Russian: Озёрск) is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945. Until 1994 it was known as Chelyabinsk-65, and even earlier, as Chelyabinsk-40 (the digits are the last digits of the postal code, and the name is that of the nearest big city; that was a common practice of giving names to closed towns). In 1994, it was granted town status and renamed Ozyorsk. Population: 86,100 (2004 est.); 91,760 (2002 Census).

[edit] Economy

Ozyorsk was and remains a closed town because of its proximity to the Mayak plant, the main source of Soviet plutonium during the Cold War, and now a Russian facility for processing nuclear waste and recycling nuclear material from decommissioned nuclear weapons. If you travel through the area by bus, all the road signs point the way to the nearby village of Kyshtym, but there is not mention of Ozyorsk itself. Mayak was the site of a major 1957 disaster involving radioactive pollution (see list of military nuclear accidents). Ozyorsk and the surrounding countryside have suffered from serious radioactive pollution, and the Mayak plant remains controversial in this regard. The highway from Chelyabinsk to Ekaterinburg passes through the radioactive zone that resulted from the disaster. Travelling by bus, the only sign that you are there is the roadsign pointing down a backroad to the village of Kyshtym.

The plant itself covers an area of approximately 90 km² and employs 23,200 people.

The Mayak is primarily engaged in reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear submarines and icebreakers and from nuclear power plants. Commercially, it produces cobalt-60, iridium-192, carbon-14 and establishes conversion production with use of radiative technologies applying wasteless technologies.

The town's coat of arms depicts a flame-coloured salamander representing the ecological situation after the 1957 accident.

Southern-Urals Construction Department (Russian: ЗАО "Южноуральское управление строительства") is another major enterprise. Its activities include construction for atomic industry needs, production of concrete constructions and construction materials.

Main products of Plant of Wiring Products #2 (ЗАО "Завод электромонтажных изделий №2") are low-voltage devices for military-industrial establishments.

[edit] Education and culture

There are seventeen different cultural and public-service institutions.

There are sixteen secondary schools, two schools specializing in the English language, one gimnasium, physics-mathematics lyceum, three professional colleges, Southern-Ural Polytechnical College, Music College, Ozyorsk Engineering Institute (an affiliate of Moscow Engineering-Physical State University), and affiliates of Yekaterinburg's and Chelyabinsk's universities.

[edit] External links

Information portal of Ozyorsk (Russian)
An article about Ozyorsk and Mayak on Uralpress.ru (English)

	Cities and towns in Chelyabinsk Oblast
	Administrative center: Chelyabinsk Asha \| Bakal \| Chebarkul \| Karabash \| Kartaly \| Kasli \| Katav-Ivanovsk \| Kopeysk \| Korkino \| Kusa \| Kyshtym \| Magnitogorsk \| Miass \| Minyar \| Nyazepetrovsk \| Ozyorsk \| Plast \| Satka \| Sim \| Snezhinsk \| Troitsk \| Tryokhgorny \| Ust-Katav \| Verkhny Ufaley \| Yemanzhelinsk \| Yuryuzan \| Yuzhnouralsk \| Verkhneuralsk \| Zlatoust