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A number of Ukrainian media outlets alleged that the Yuny Communar Mine flooded; supposedly, this’d cause radioactive water to soon flow into the streams feeding the Donbass watershed. In response, nuclear physicist Fyodor Baryakhtar, head of the DNR Committee of Environmental Technology and Innovation, told us that the radiation level of the Yuny Communar Mine in Yenakiyevo poses no threat to human health or wellbeing, even if it floods completely, saying, “I can confidently say that it’s totally safe, there’s no radioactivity there”. On 16 September 1979, Soviet scientists detonated a nuclear weapon in the Yuny Communar Mine at a depth of 800 metres. They intended the explosion to reduce methane gas emissions through the formation of a glazed capsule over the shaft. However, the experiment wasn’t successful, for the methane level only reduced slightly; methane leaks continued until the end of coalmining at the site in 2002. The Ukrainian media knows that they used this mine for a nuclear weapons test, therefore, to sow panic, they say that there’s an unsafe level of radiation. They allege if water comes into close contact with the glass capsule, then, the water will become radioactive, run into streams, and get into the watershed. That was possible 50 years ago, but not now. Thirty years are more than enough for the full decay of radioactive elements released by the experiment. Twenty years ago, laboratory tests monitoring the level of radioactivity of the capsule ended, as they were no longer necessary. Even then, radiation levels were safe for the environment and for the miners”.
A DNR Ministry of Coal and Energy source added that the water level in the mine was in the normal range, and pumping goes as planned. Baryakhtar pointed up, “The Ukrainian media play on people’s ignorance and unfamiliarity with the topic, they try to scare people into thinking that they’re going to poisoned tomorrow, into sowing panic, to make people think that the worst is about to happen. They sow panic with one purpose in mind… to frighten people into fleeing the area. I’ll tell you with full certainty… right now, you could put your bed there and sleep there”.
17 August 2015
DAN Donetsk News Agency
http://dan-news.info/obschestvo/radioaktivnoj-ugrozy-na-shaxte-yunyj-kommunar-o-kotoroj-lgut-smi-ukrainy-net-bolee-20-let-ekolog.html
Voices from Russia 
Radioactive Threat Posed by Yuny Communar Mine Overblown in Junta Media
Tags: DNR, Donetsk People's Republic, Environment, Novorossiya, Nuclear weapon, political commentary, politics, radioactive contamination, Russia, Russian, science
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A number of Ukrainian media outlets alleged that the Yuny Communar Mine flooded; supposedly, this’d cause radioactive water to soon flow into the streams feeding the Donbass watershed. In response, nuclear physicist Fyodor Baryakhtar, head of the DNR Committee of Environmental Technology and Innovation, told us that the radiation level of the Yuny Communar Mine in Yenakiyevo poses no threat to human health or wellbeing, even if it floods completely, saying, “I can confidently say that it’s totally safe, there’s no radioactivity there”. On 16 September 1979, Soviet scientists detonated a nuclear weapon in the Yuny Communar Mine at a depth of 800 metres. They intended the explosion to reduce methane gas emissions through the formation of a glazed capsule over the shaft. However, the experiment wasn’t successful, for the methane level only reduced slightly; methane leaks continued until the end of coalmining at the site in 2002. The Ukrainian media knows that they used this mine for a nuclear weapons test, therefore, to sow panic, they say that there’s an unsafe level of radiation. They allege if water comes into close contact with the glass capsule, then, the water will become radioactive, run into streams, and get into the watershed. That was possible 50 years ago, but not now. Thirty years are more than enough for the full decay of radioactive elements released by the experiment. Twenty years ago, laboratory tests monitoring the level of radioactivity of the capsule ended, as they were no longer necessary. Even then, radiation levels were safe for the environment and for the miners”.
A DNR Ministry of Coal and Energy source added that the water level in the mine was in the normal range, and pumping goes as planned. Baryakhtar pointed up, “The Ukrainian media play on people’s ignorance and unfamiliarity with the topic, they try to scare people into thinking that they’re going to poisoned tomorrow, into sowing panic, to make people think that the worst is about to happen. They sow panic with one purpose in mind… to frighten people into fleeing the area. I’ll tell you with full certainty… right now, you could put your bed there and sleep there”.
17 August 2015
DAN Donetsk News Agency
http://dan-news.info/obschestvo/radioaktivnoj-ugrozy-na-shaxte-yunyj-kommunar-o-kotoroj-lgut-smi-ukrainy-net-bolee-20-let-ekolog.html