WORLD : Soviets Admit ’57 A-Plant Blast
The Soviet Union officially acknowledged for the first time today that there was a powerful nuclear explosion at an atomic weapons plant in the Ural Mountains in September, 1957.
The accident, kept secret by authorities until now, created a radioactive trail 65 miles long and 5 to 6 miles wide, and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, the official Tass news agency said.
More than 30 years later, large areas around the town of Kasli, 60 miles north of the city of Chelyabinsk, were still contaminated and water reserves were undrinkable, it said.
Western experts have long suspected that there was a serious nuclear accident in the area about that time.
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