Vitaly Fedakov Portrait - Tomsk-7 Victims Documentation (Russia: 2005)

Vitaly Fedakov (1945) lives in Samus, Russia and once worked as a captain on a dredge boat, Obsky 402. He worked for decades collecting sediments from the Tom River, which has to be cleaned out every year. The sediments in the river were contaminated and many of Vitaly’s crew has fallen ill. Vitaly stopped working after he had a stroke. His doctor says his health problems are caused by radioactive pollution. Many inhabitants of cities surrounding the Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises and its workers have fallen ill. The SGCE is located in the closed city of Seversk and has had over 35 accidents in four decades. The town, once called Tomsk-7, was a secret city until 1992 and did not appear on official maps. The city still remains closed to non-residents. The last major accident took place in 1993. An explosion destroyed part of a reprocessing facility and an area of 200 square kilometers was contaminated with radioactive materials, resulting in evacuations and ongoing devastation. Radioactive materials from Europe are still processed by the SGCE and additional contamination stems from deliberate dumping of highly radioactive waste in the Tom River.