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Cold-war spy pictures reveal a Soviet nuclear ‘cloud generator’

Declassified satellite pictures expose the catastrophic damage done by a plutonium complex in the Urals.
Satellite image of the partially frozen Lake Kyzyltash with a thick cloud of steam

A 1966 satellite picture shows a plume of steam rising from a partially frozen lake in the Soviet Union, an indicator that plutonium was being produced there. Credit: G. Kiarszys/United States Geological Survey

The operation of a notorious Soviet plutonium-making facility decades ago caused ecological devastation in the Southern Urals1.

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Nature 598, 388 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02756-4

References

  1. Kiarszys, G. Camb. Archaeol. J. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774321000494 (2021).

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