Vozrozhdeniya Island

"This article is about the island. For the album by folk metal band Arkona, see Vozrozhdeniye."

Vozrozhdeniya Island, also known as Rebirth Island (Uzbek "Tiklanish orollari"; Russian Остров Возрождения), is a former island, now a peninsula, in the Aral Sea. It became a peninsula in 2002, due to ongoing shrinkage of the Aral Sea. [Visible Earth: [http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=4343 Aral Sea] . NASA, 8 June 2006.] It is now shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Located in the central Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniya Island was one of the main laboratories and testing sites for the Soviet Union government’s Microbiological Warfare Group. In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established here. Word of the island's danger was further spread by Soviet defectors, including Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union's bioweapons program. It was here, according to just released documents, that anthrax spores and bubonic plague bacilli were weaponized and stored. The main town on the island was Kantubek, which lies in ruins today, but once had approximately 1,500 inhabitants.

The laboratory staff members abandoned the island in late 1991. Many of the containers holding the spores were not properly stored or destroyed, and over the last decade many of the containers have developed leaks. As the Aral Sea continues to recede, the area will eventually connect further with the surrounding land. Many scientists fear that animals will move to the surrounding land and eventually carry these deadly biological agents out.

Brian Hayes, a biochemical engineer with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, led an expedition in the spring and summer of 2002 to neutralize what was likely the world's largest anthrax dumping grounds. His team of 113 people neutralized between 100 and 200 tons of anthrax over a three-month period. The cost of the cleanup operation was approximately $5 million.

ee Also

*Kantubek

References

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFGx9nU3q4 Youtube: Going To Extremes: Voz-Island (Part 1)]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_2lJ4gtMLE Youtube: Going To Extremes: Voz-Island (Part 2)]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1464031,00.html Welcome to Anthrax Island - Guardian Unlimited]
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5108 Rebirth Island joins the mainland (2000 and 2001 satellite images)]
* [http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16277 NASA satellite image comparison between 1989 and 2003]
* [http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/programs/dc/briefs/011802.htm Biological Decontamination of Vozrozhdeniye Island: The U.S.-Uzbek Agreement]
* [http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/opapers/op1/op1.htm Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan: Past, Present, and Future]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/vozrozhdenly.htm 1960's Satellite images of Soviet laboratory]
*Pala, Christopher (2003), [http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/sloth/2003-01-17.html "Anthrax Island"] "The New York Times", January 12, 2003.
* [http://petra.wijnsema.nl/articles/anthrax.htm US will spend 6 million dollars to clean up the world’s biggest anthrax burial ground]