ABSTRACT
The Ural Mountains are a 1,553-mile-long by 90-mile-wide band of mountains in northwestern Russia. Geologists also have named this range the Great Stone Belt, due to its impressive exposed metamorphic rocks. The range serves as a natural geographic and cultural barrier between eastern and central Russia. A controversial Russian government project involves converting other countries' nuclear waste including that of Germany, Japan, and South Korea into fuel at this location. The branch of the Russian government that oversees the national parks is part of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, which historically has emphasized development, rather than conservation, efforts. Russians here have shown a high level of alcoholism, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), cancer, chronic illnesses, and other health issues. In an attempt to bring some of its past mistakes to light, in 1992 the Russian government formally acknowledged a 1979 outbreak of the biological agent anthrax at a military complex in Sverdlovsk that killed sixty-six residents.
