In the 1960s, the Soviet Union pursued its own version of the ill-fated U.S. "Operation Plowshare," in which scientists hoped to harness the atom for major infrastructure and other types of projects. Soviet officials used a peaceful nuclear explosion to blast out a lake in Kazakhstan. Far from being a benefit to the local residents, as RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports, many fear that the so-called atomic lake has contaminated their environment.
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