Techa

{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=ru|otherarticle=Теча|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox river

| name = Techa

| image =

| image_caption =

| source1_location =

| subdivision_type1 = Country

| subdivision_name1 = Russia

| mouth = Iset

| mouth_location =

| mouth_coordinates = {{coord|55.7686|60.7339|type:waterbody|display=it}}

| progression = Iset→ {{RTobol}}

| length = {{convert|243|km|mi|abbr=on}}

| source1_elevation =

| discharge1_avg =

| basin_size = {{convert|7600|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}

}}

File:Tobol basin.png

The Techa ({{langx|ru|Те́ча}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈtʲet͡ɕə|}}) is an eastward river on the eastern flank of the southern Ural Mountains noted for its nuclear contamination. It is {{convert|243|km|mi}} long, and its basin covers {{convert|7600|km2|mi2}}.{{GVR|195865|Река Теча}} It begins by the once-secret nuclear processing town of Ozyorsk about {{convert|80|km|mi}} northwest of Chelyabinsk and flows east then northeast to the small town of Dalmatovo to flow into the mid-part of the Iset, a tributary of the Tobol. Its basin is close to and north of the Miass, longer than these rivers apart from the Tobol.

Water pollution

From 1949 to 1956 the Mayak complex[http://www.rdc.gov.lv/nucpedia/uk/river.htm Techa River] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911205042/http://www.rdc.gov.lv/nucpedia/uk/river.htm |date=11 September 2007 }} dumped an estimated {{convert|76|e6m3|cuft}} of radioactive waste water into the Techa River,[http://www.logtv.com/films/chelyabinsk/ CHELYABINSK "The Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet" – a documentary film by Slawomir Grunberg – Log In Productions – distributed by LogTV LTD] a cumulative dispersal of {{convert|2.75|MCi|PBq|lk=on|abbr=on}} of radioactivity.{{cite web|last=Pike|first=John|title=Chelyabinsk-65 / Ozersk Combine 817 / Production Association Mayak|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/chelyabinsk-65_nuc.htm|publisher=GlobalSecurity.org|access-date=29 September 2010}}

As many as forty villages, with a combined population of about 28,000 residents, lined the river at the time.{{Cite web |url=http://phys4.harvard.edu/~wilson/publications/pp747/techa_cor.htm |title=Radioactive Contamination of the Techa River and its Effects |access-date=6 March 2008 |archive-date=15 March 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050315111114/http://phys4.harvard.edu/%7Ewilson/publications/pp747/techa_cor.htm |url-status=dead }} For 24 of them, the Techa was a major source of water; 23 of them were eventually evacuated.{{cite journal|last=Clay |first=Rebecca |title=Cold War, Hot Nukes: Legacy of an Era |doi=10.1289/ehp.109-a162 |pmid=11335195 |journal=Environmental Health Perspectives |date=April 2001 |volume=109 |issue=4 |url=http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109-4/focus.html |access-date=29 September 2010 |publisher=National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences |pages=a162–a169 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602054832/http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109-4/focus.html |archive-date=2 June 2010 |pmc=1240291 }} In the past 45 years, about half a million people in the region have been irradiated in one or more of the incidents,{{cite web|last=Zaitchik|first=Alexander|title=Inside the Zone|url=http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=13122&IBLOCK_ID=35|publisher=The Exile|access-date=29 September 2010|date=8 October 2007}} exposing them to as much as 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims.

The Tobol is a sub-tributary of the Ob, being linked by the final part of the Irtysh; all three flow generally north.