"My home: nuclear base Semipalatinsk-21", Episode 04 "Atomic Lake Balapan"

Documentary episodes: "My home: Nuclear Base Semipalatinsk-21",
Episode 04 "Atomic Lake Balapan"

Driving thru the steppe, we are beginning to see dark hills on the horizon. These hills were created by nuclear explosions, which were about ten times more powerful than Hiroshima and Nagasaki together.

Almost at the top of the hill, we stop our car. Then, we take our dosimeter and measure levels around. Radiations seems survivable. It is very quiet.

I'm trying to measure the ground with the dosimeter and it does not work, I don't know why. Then the numbers begin to climb up at a frighteningly fast pace. Our guide tells us we should move fast, otherwise "the soles of our shoes would melt". It's a local joke.

Once, the gates of hell opened here, and the earth cried a lake of an emerald color. Nuke of 110 kilotons was laid at about 1000 feet under the ground. Then, blown up. Water collected in the crater. Lake was made in the middle of the steppe almost instantaneously. And now, it's about 700 ft deep and 900 ft wide.

After it was created, scientists introduced fish in the lake, and fish started to spread. For a while, soldiers enjoyed fishing, of course remembering to check each bite with the dosimeter. In the beginning everything was ok, and some time later, 2 headed fish appeared. The army begun to receive strange reports, that some fish were jolting with electricity. Some time after, army begun getting reports that some fish are climbing out of the lake, on the ground. Fish developed rudimental extremities.

The army decided to stop the experiment and poison all of the fish. Fish survived. Then, fish survived a second and a third poisoning rounds. At that point army decided to abandon the experiment, and placed a barbed wire around the lake.

A little bit later, local nomads, washing their lambs with chemicals for parasites, accidentally killed all of the fish. Supposedly. And a little bit later their lambs begun to disappear along with their children.

About 15 years ago, a group of Japanese scientists came over; their dosimeters stopped working, so the Russians brought ...