Severe floods that hit Russia in late 2023 – early 2024, in conjunction with the incompetence of regional authorities, have resulted in the spillage of uranium-contaminated waters into the Tobol River.

The uranium wells at the Dobrovolskoye mine, in the Kurgan Region near Kazakhstan’s border, are owned and operated by the state-run corporation Rosatom.

Residents at Trud-i-Znanie, a village near the deposits, and environment activists have shared pictures and videos of the floods on the Russian social media platform VKontakte, prompting a local news Telegram channel to investigate their complaints.

Local residents protesting against the authorities' slow reaction to the looming disaster. 

The Public Fund for Environmental Monitoring and Population Welfare, a regional environmental organization, said the floods washed the underground waste left in the Dobrovolskoye mine out to surface and further into the Tobol River. The contaminated area is thousands of square kilometers and growing.

The source of uranium contamination is just around 200 kilometers north of the Kazakh border, potentially threatening the ecosystem of the entire Kurgan Region and northern districts of the neighboring country.

The approximate location of the Dobrovolskoye mine.