Russia Declares State of Emergency in Nuclear Town as Wildfires Blaze

"A state of emergency has been introduced in forests and parks on the territory of the Ozersk city district due to a complicated fire hazard situation," said a statement posted on the district's website.

Ozersk, in the Urals region of Russia, is the latest strategic site to be threatened by wildfires which have already badly damaged military depots and threatened other atomic facilities.

Ozersk's Mayak plant can process 400 tonnes of waste a year. It was the scene of one of the former Soviet Union's major nuclear disasters in 1957 when a liquid waste accident affected some 260,000 people and forced the evacuation of several towns.

The Snezhinsk centre, which makes nuclear weapons, is located in another town in the Urals some 925 miles east of Moscow.'

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