“Due to the fact that attending doctors were not allowed by the military to mention ‘chronic radiation sickness’ in their diagnoses for fear it would reveal the nature of the facility, patients were simply told they had ‘astheno-vegetative syndrome’ and medical records simply recorded vague terms such as ‘special disease’. 66 people would ultimately succumb to the sickness, plus another 49 to 55 to radiation-induced cancer.”

See information about the Russian lake at the following “Basement Geographer” post, which provides a reference list at the bottom: http://basementgeographer.blogspot.com/2012/10/lake-karachay-mayak-and-chelyabinsk-40.html .

Great thanks to Nancy Calabretta who informed me of the grant opportunity.

Ellen