2012, radioactive home

This photo project captures the invisible dangers of living in Muslyumovo, a village near the Mayak nuclear plant in the Urals region of Russia. Despite its serene appearance with beautiful sunsets, Muslyumovo is a hazardous place due to high radiation levels stemming from a nuclear disaster over six decades ago. In 1957 Mayak was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in history when the explosion of a poorly maintained storage tank released 50-100 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste, contaminating a huge territory in the eastern Urals and causing numerous deaths and injuries due to radiation poisoning. Over 124 000 people in 41 settlements were officially recorded as radiation victims. The region suffered them two more seprate radiacion accidents. In 2006 a resetlement program has been put in place. 

In 2012 there was still 25 families remaining in the Muslyumovo village where people’s cattle would drink from the contaminated river Techa and the children would swim in the summer. Most residents, including 7-year-old Snezhana, suffer from chronic radiation sickness, while many others face radiation-related illnesses. Some families have been moved to the New Muslyumovo village, just a few kilimeters away from the old Moslyumovo. 

Rafail Shafikov: We all got sick from the river. We lived next to it. We kept livestock and poultry, we planted potatos. We are almost dead, where else can we go? They moved us and not lookimg after us. The houses are cold. I’m wearing 'valenki' (felt winter boots) at home. Children swam in the river. It’s hot in the summer. They still do because they are no swimming pools here. I was 3 when they started dumping nuclear waste in the river. I had it with my mother’s milk. In the old village there was no well, so we drank water from the river. Only in 1957 they dug a well'. 

Yekaterina Ott: I’m 87, everything hurts. I came here in 1950, I have been resettled twice already. We were moved here in 1941 and then in 1957. I’m German so I was moved here from Saratov region. We were resettled again in 1957 after the Mayak disaster, we came here to Moslyumovo. They first told us they’d resettle vour street but they left me here, waiting for me to die'.

The project documents the struggles of the residents in the region where it is unsafe, where people also face the inadequate resettlement efforts by the government, the alleged mismanagement of funds meant for relocation, and the ongoing health crisis in the area. It sheds light on the human cost of living in a contaminated zone, where families endure hardships caused by radioactive pollution from the nuclear plant.