Nuclear facilities in the Crimea were actively built during the Soviet era. But after the collapse of the Union, many of them were closed, and subsequently they were dismantled by looters. The Soviet legacy is a huge number of inactive objects in Russia and in the former Soviet republics. The abandoned objects of the Crimea attract diggers, tourists and just lovers of tickling their nerves.
Reasons for the construction of a large number of nuclear facilities
Due to its border location, Crimea has always been at the center of military developments. During the Soviet era, after the outbreak of the Cold War, the country's leadership tried to secure the state.
Since the situation in the world political arena was very tense and there was a real threat of a nuclear strike from America, large-scale construction projects of objects for various purposes began in the Crimea: from bomb shelters to a nuclear weapons storage facility. Also began to develop the industry of Crimea.
Unfortunately, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of these facilities were abandoned for various reasons. Russia's nuclear facilities are in the best condition.
Crimean nuclear station
The Crimean NPP was never completed. It is located on the Kerch Peninsula, near the city of Shchelkino, on the banks of the salt Aktash reservoir. They planned to use it as a cooling pond.
With the help of this nuclear power plant, the authorities wanted to provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula, and also to begin the further development of industry. Nowadays, a working nuclear plant would be very useful when the Zaporizhzhya NPP is on the other side of the border of a not very friendly state.
Construction began here in 1975, along with the construction of the satellite city Shchelkino. They decided to name the village in honor of Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich, who was an outstanding nuclear physicist. The young city was populated by young specialists - nuclear scientists and experienced workers of operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
The construction of the station itself began only in 1982. The construction was carried out on a strict schedule, the first launch was planned in 1989, but the station did not work. In 1987, the project was frozen. There are many reasons for this, the most important of them is the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The media began to appear that all nuclear power plants are nuclear hazardous facilities, that it is dangerous to use such fuel, and it is unacceptable to build new stations, in particular Krymskaya. In addition to these arguments, there was another - unfavorable location from a geological point of view.
In the year of the proposed launch, the project was completely closed. Things went to the collapse of the Soviet Union, so the almost finished Crimean NPP was left unattended, which was used by looters of all stripes.
The nuclear power plant began to be stolen and pulled away to ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Today, there is only one frame left of it, and it attracts only tourists and filmmakers. However, like all abandoned nuclear facilities in the Crimea and Sevastopol, nuclear power plants are destroyed not only due to looters, but also under the influence of the environment and time.
Hopper "Alsou"
“Object 221” is the largest bunker in the territory of Crimea. It was planned to place the command of the Black Sea Fleet in case of a nuclear attack. In total, it has four underground floors, the depth of which is two hundred meters, and three of them are available only with climbing equipment.
Inside the bunker, images of the radiation sign are striking everywhere. Here - metal hatches that close the aisles, kilometers of mines and a huge room for a nuclear reactor.
The entrance to the bunker is located in Mount Target and disguised as a residential building. Even the windows are painted for credibility. At the top of the mountain are the vents and waveguide shafts. Looking at him, you understand that the Soviet leadership took the possible aggression from its enemies very seriously.
A visit to the bunker is not recommended due to the many technical moves in which it is easy to get lost, abandoned and dangerous elevator shafts. There is also increased humidity inside the object, which creates a favorable microclimate for the development of microorganisms, for example, mold, which can lead to lung necrosis.
Underground Sevastopol
The underground city began to be developed long before it interested the military. They showed interest in him only in the 30s of the XX century. Mostly underground premises were used as a warehouse for food and ammunition.
When the nuclear threat appeared , the government conceived a grandiose project in scope. Still not recovering from World War II, the country began to prepare for a new war. According to the plan I.V. Stalin, each building on the surface had to have its own double underground. And in the event of an atomic war, people would just go down a few tens of meters and continue to live and work as usual.
The plan was very complicated, and by 1953 the underground Sevastopol was not even half built. At this time, Khrushchev came to power and throws all his strength and resources to the development of missile development and nuclear submarines. As a result, the project with the underground city is frozen and will never be returned to it.
Only a few rooms were suitable as shelters and put into operation. Little is known about the rest of the structures. Particularly secret ones disappeared, as if they were not there: the entrances were bricked up, and the drawings were burned. Other premises are simply abandoned.
It was assumed that all the premises would be interconnected, but since the city was not completed, many remained autonomous.
Nuclear weapon storage
Nuclear facilities in the Crimea in the middle of the 20th century were built very actively and using the latest technologies. The nuclear weapons storage facility was built in 1955 near Krasnokamenka. This is one of the first central nuclear weapons storage facilities. The place was not chosen by chance: a valley hidden from prying eyes by mountain spurs. The repository is a tunnel, more than two kilometers long, punched in Mount Kiziltash. According to experts, the ammunition will remain intact even with a close explosion of a nuclear warhead.
The first atomic bombs in this storehouse were collected manually, without any protection for workers, except for alcohol.
Secrecy is very strictly respected. Object 76 was accessible only by a special pass. There were warning signs everywhere, and the perimeter of the vault was surrounded by barbed wire. But, on the one hand, the name of the Krasnokamenka could be found on the map, and in the passport of the local residents “Theodosia-13” could be indicated.
In the 94th year, having signed agreements with the USA and Ukraine, Russia transported all the contents of the facility to its territory.
Balaclava ("Object 825")
Until 1957 it was a city, and now it is part of Sevastopol. After the end of World War II, this object was not on the maps. In its place was a closed base of submarines, an arsenal of nuclear weapons. She was in a rocky shelter, which is an adit and is able to withstand a nuclear strike. For conspiracy, the object was called the repair and technical base.
It was not only a storage facility for nuclear supplies, but also an underground submarine repair plant.
The construction of this base took only four years: from 1957 to 1961. Seven diesel submarines entered the canal of this underground harbor at once, and if necessary several thousand people could be accommodated.
Now "Object 825" is open to all comers and turned into a museum of submarines and ships.
"Object 100"
Between Cape Ayia and Balaklava was a secret coastal missile system. From the 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was he who controlled the entire Black Sea.
The underground complex was completely autonomous in the event of prolonged hostilities and had an additional protective framework against atomic weapons.
The construction of the facility was carried out from 1954 to 1957. Gun mounts of the underground missile system shot down any target within a radius of 100 meters. During the construction, it was understood that the enemy would attack from Turkey. While the complex hit the enemy, the command of the Black Sea Fleet could gather and deploy its forces.
For that time, “Sotka” was equipped with the most modern technology. In 1964 and 1982, reconstruction and rearmament of new types of missiles was carried out.
In 1996, Sotka was transferred to Ukraine, like many nuclear facilities in the Crimea. The government mothballed it. At first, the facility was guarded, but by 2005 no one was left there, and the entire complex was dismantled for scrap.
Nuclear Air Base
Landfill number 71, or the airfield "Bagerovo" - an object that can accept all types of aircraft. It is also a spare runway for the Buran spacecraft, which is still in good condition.
The main functions of the training ground were bombing from fighters in the mode of aerial nuclear explosions, and "non-nuclear" bomb tests together with fighters. Hazardous waste was buried in the steppe, between the villages of Bagerovo and Chistopol. The burial ground, which is called Bagerovsky, exists to this day, overgrown with many rumors and omissions.
The airfield is located near Kerch - 14 kilometers. Construction was carried out from 1947 to 1949.
Now four and a half thousand people live in the village. For the most part, these are former military personnel and members of their families.
In the 70-80s, the air regiment in Bagerovo was the training base for the navigator school. Later he played the role of training and retraining pilots from all over the USSR. The last graduates left for Russia in 1994. Since 1996, the airport has not been operated. And in 1998, the military unit was disbanded. The landfill became desolate, like almost all nuclear facilities in the Crimea.
Polygon "Thread"
Located at the airport Novofedorovka. It was built in the 80s of the 20th century for training and testing new models of aircraft carriers and for training pilots before landing and taking off on an aircraft carrier.
The range fully reproduces a three-deck aircraft carrier with all the necessary devices such as a springboard, retarding network and other things. And the main simulators are underground.
Training nuclear reactor in Sevastopol
The Crimean nuclear industry is represented by only one reactor, which is located on the territory of the Sevastopol State University of Nuclear Energy and Industry. It was stopped in 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea to Russia. To use the training reactor, a license is required, which the university has only in Ukraine, but has not been obtained for work in Russia. Therefore, at the moment, the reactor is not functioning. The facility was built and commissioned in 1967.