Crushed Stone and Radiation: The Tragedy in Kramatorsk

April 26, 2025 – the 39th anniversary of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

Eternal memory to those who perished as a result of the catastrophe, its aftermath, and the cleanup operations. We wish strong health to the living liquidators, the victims, and witnesses of the tragedy.

The Chornobyl NPP accident is considered the most severe in the history of nuclear energy. It is described as the worst civilian nuclear incident in the world and is one of only two nuclear disasters rated at Level 7—the highest severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), the other being the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan on March 11, 2011.

It was during this event that humanity truly learned what radiation is, how terrifying it can be, and what devastating consequences it can bring.

Had it not been for the Chornobyl accident, perhaps no one would have thought to check the radiation levels of a typical apartment in a standard residential building in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast—where, over several years, residents kept dying…

In the late 1970s, at the Karansky quarry in Donetsk Oblast, where crushed stone was mined, a radioactive source—an IGI-C-4 type capsule containing cesium-137 used in a radioisotope level gauge—was “lost.” A search began, and company management warned its many clients of the incident. Crushed stone deliveries were suspended until the search concluded.

However, rumors suggest that crushed stone from the Karansky quarry was intended for the construction of facilities for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. When the report about the lost capsule reached CPSU General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, he allegedly ordered that construction must not stop—Olympic deadlines had to be met at all costs. A week later, on his orders, the search for the capsule was called off.

In 1980, a prefabricated apartment building was commissioned on Hvardiitsiv-Kantemyrivtsiv Street in Kramatorsk (now 7 Mariia Prymachenko Street). The lost capsule, only 8 by 4 mm in size and emitting 200 roentgens per hour, ended up embedded in a wall on the fourth floor between apartments 52 and 85.

In 1981, an 18-year-old girl who lived in the building died, followed a year later by her 16-year-old brother, and then their mother. Another family moved in, and their teenage son also died shortly afterward. Residents in neighboring apartments also became ill and died—mostly young people, and the mortality rate was strikingly abnormal.

All those who died were diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors attributed it to poor genetics.

As a result, frightening rumors began to spread throughout the city—about a “killer house,” mysterious curses, and other horrors.

It was one of the victims’ parents who raised the alarm, suspecting a connection between the deadly illness and the apartment. He demanded an investigation, which was not launched until 1989—eight years after the first death.

When experts finally arrived at the “bad apartment,” they detected high levels of radioactivity in the child’s room, in the adjacent apartment, and in the one directly above.

The residents were evacuated. The exact location of the radioactive source was identified, a section of the wall was removed, and it was delivered to the Kyiv Institute for Nuclear Research, where the capsule was extracted. Using the serial number, the owner of the capsule was identified.

After its removal, gamma radiation in building No. 7 disappeared and radiation levels returned to background norms.

The residents demanded to be rehoused, but no relocation was provided. In the West, people might have sued for compensation. In the glorious USSR, local officials simply apologized and shrugged.

Between 1981 and 1989, six people (four children and two adults) died from radiation exposure, and 17 others were officially recognized as disabled.

No one was ever held accountable for this fatal error.

In 1993, thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian MP from Kramatorsk O.D. Shekhovtsov, the disabled victims were legally recognized as equivalent to Chornobyl disaster victims. However, this amendment was later revoked due to a procedural violation in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Those who now feel nostalgic for the Soviet Union often recall the cheap sausage and ice cream—but somehow forget stories like this one.

For more details, see: – https://www.kramatorskpost.com/дом-убийца-или-краматорский-микрочер/
– https://vgoru.org/avtorska-kolonka/radioaktivnyj-dom-v-kramatorske
– Radioactive contamination in Kramatorsk — Wikipedia
– Kovyna, Natalia. Chornobyl in the Wall of a Prefabricated Building, Vostochnyi Proekt, April 28, 2003

Photo source: https://www.freepik.com/