Lake Chagan

From Freepedia

Lake Chagan (or Lake Balapan), Kazakhstan, 49.93° N 79.01° E, is a lake created during the Soviet atomic bomb project by the Chagan nuclear test. It is roughly 10,000,000 m³ in volume.

Of note, it was part of a Soviet effort to mimic the US Operation Plowshare to investigate peaceful uses of nuclear weapons; the Soviet program was Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy.

The site was chosen so that the lip of the crater would dam the Chagan River during its high spring flow. The resultant crater had a diameter of 408 meters and was 100 meters deep. A channel was cut through the upstream lip of the crater allowing it to fill as well.

As of 2005, the area is still radioactive, and has been called the Atomic Lake.

External links and references

• On the Soviet program for peaceful uses of nuclear weapons
• http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/Sovwpnprog.html#Chagan