Seversk

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox Russian inhabited locality Seversk (Template:Langx, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a closed city in Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located Template:Convert northwest of Tomsk on the right bank of the Tom River. The population was 108,590 at the 2010 census and 109,106 at the 2002 census.

It was previously known as Pyaty Pochtovy (until 1949)Template:Clarify and Tomsk-7 (until 1992).

GeographyEdit

The city is located Template:Convert northwest of Tomsk on the right bank of the Tom River.

ClimateEdit

Seversk has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with warm summer. The annual average temperature is Template:Convert. The average temperature in January is between Template:Convert. The average temperature in July is Template:Convert. The total annual rainfall is Template:Convert.

HistoryEdit

Founded in 1949, it was known as Pyaty Pochtovy ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, lit. the Fifth Postal) until 1954 and as Tomsk-7 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) until 1992.Template:Citation needed City status was granted to it in 1956.Template:Citation needed

Administrative and municipal statusEdit

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with five rural localities, incorporated as Seversk City Under Oblast Jurisdiction—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.<ref name="Ref267">Law #271-OZ</ref> As a municipal division, Seversk City Under Oblast Jurisdiction is incorporated as Seversk Urban Okrug.<ref name="Ref898">Decision #69/1</ref>

EconomyEdit

Seversk is the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine, founded in 1954. It comprises several nuclear reactors and chemical plants for separation, enrichment, and reprocessing of uranium and plutonium. Following an agreement in March 2003 between Russia and the United States to shut down Russia's three remaining plutonium-producing reactors, two of the three plutonium producing reactors (the two that are situated in Seversk, at the Sibirskaya Nuclear Power Plant) were shut down.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>The remaining operating production reactor is sited at Zheleznogorsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai.</ref>

Nuclear warheads are produced and stored on the premises. One of the most serious nuclear accidents at SGCETemplate:Explain occurred on April 6, 1993, when a tank containing a highly radioactive solution exploded (see § Tomsk-7 explosion).

GovernmentEdit

The current Chair of the City Duma and Mayor is Grigory Shamin, who has served since 2010. The current city manager is Anatoly Abramov, who has served since August 2007.

Secret cityEdit

File:Seversk checkpoint.jpg

Central entry checkpoint

Seversk had been a secret city in the Soviet Union until President Boris Yeltsin decreed in 1992 that such cities could use their historical names. The town had not been marked on the official maps until then. As was the tradition with Soviet towns containing secret facilities, the designation "Tomsk-7" (like its predecessor "Pyaty Pochtovy") is simply a postal code which implies that the place is located close to the city of Tomsk.

For many years, residents have been restricted from entering or leaving the city. Upon leaving Seversk, residents had to surrender their special entry passes at the checkpoint and it was forbidden to discuss where they worked or lived. In 1987, some restrictions were lifted due to the large number of residents who worked or studied in Tomsk.

The city still remains closed to non-residents. There are six checkpoints where visitors must show entry documents. Permission to visit the city may only be granted by the appropriate authorities by a request of the institution being visited, or by a request of a private party such as a close relative. Visitors can apply for entry passes at the main checkpoint; prior to May 2007, they needed to visit a special office in Tomsk.

Tomsk-7 explosionEdit

There was a nuclear accident at the Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex on April 6, 1993, when a tank exploded due to formation of red oil, while nitric acid was being added to a plutonium-uranium mixture. The explosion had a force of approximately 100 kg of TNT and blew out a large section of the exterior wall of the high level radioactive processing room,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> releasing a cloud of radioactive gas. The cloud was dispersed northwards by the wind, with some of the radioactive material settling over the neighboring village of Georgiyevka.

TIME magazine has identified the Tomsk-7 explosion as one of the world's 10 "worst nuclear disasters".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The International Atomic Energy Agency considers the event a Level 3 "serious incident".<ref>THE RADIOLOGICAL ACCIDENT IN THE REPROCESSING PLANT AT TOMSK, International Atomic Energy Agency, https://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/p060_scr.pdf</ref>

CultureEdit

Seversk hasTemplate:When nine municipal cultural and artistic institutions, as well as four establishments of additional education for children of artistic and aesthetic focus.Template:Citation needed There is also a nonprofit organization, Ostrovsky House of Culture,<ref>Ostrovsky House of Culture</ref> and a cinema called Mir.<ref>"Mir".</ref>