In the second half of May 2002 the leading informational agencies and mass media of the world embroiled all the planet with the alarming news: on May 12 at 6.45 in the morning in the vicinities of Mailisay town a slide of 400 thousand cubic metres in volume had overlapped the flow of the river bearing the same name having shaped a lake which submerged a part of "Electroisolit" plant territory. On this area there are 23 tail repositories and 8 mining pits with uranium wastes; being washed off they might get into the river and contaminate it with radioactive stuffs. In this case ecological holocaust would impended over the Ferghana Valley with its 10 million population.

"That what we had been afraid of did happen"-, said at that time the vice prime-minister of Kyrgyzstan Nikolay Tanayev at the press-conference and added that the governments of the neighbouring countries had been let know about it. But it is strange that the situation formed seemed not to have disturbed many people in Sughd viloyat located at the entrance to the Ferghana Valley. There are a lot of this sort of slides in the mountain still…
But the experts and veterans-workers of "Vostokredmet" (rare metals of the Orient) state enterprise in Chkalovsk were alarmed gravely. They comprehended perfectly well that the slide caused a real threat for tail repositories which might have washed off into the Mailisay river with their subsequent travel over the entire Syr-Darya reservoir up to the Aral Sea. It is a great luck that the holocaust didn't take place. International organizations began to render aid to Kyrgyzia in rehabilitation of the territories with tail repositories. It seemed that now the multimillion population of the Syr-Darya reservoir might compose itself and live tranquilly. But at "Vostokredmet" SE the leadership and experts together with ecology organizations were prompt to raise alarm each hour.
Mailisay is not a ring, but already a stentorian tocsin for the entire world community,- the chief of the productive-technical section of the enterprise in question A. Yu. Botov shares his opinion. - Slides, earthquakes and mud-stone lavas present the most danger for Central Asian countries. On the mayority of the areas of this region in the period of 1944-1967 the wastes from uranium ore processing were interred in tens of tail repositories and at present they need in fortification of dams protecting from lavas and reconstruction of mountainous country, into the bargain, the process of mountain formation had not finished yet. We live in the zone where earthquakes force 9 are possible. Universal rise of temperature causes no less trouble as it may entail frequent showers bringing mud-stone lavas, as a rule. Strong earthquakes, slides, powerful lavas may destroy tail repositories, propagate the wastes over entire Central Asia.
In order to avoid it one ought to undertake radical measures. The issue of further dealing with tail repositories was considered yet in the Soviet Union times. Moscow experts mapped out a number of projects on rehabilitation of tail repositories territories. The approximate cost of jobs was estimated in 60 mln. dollars. But they had missed the time for implementation - the USSR ceased its existence. Tojikiston alone is unable to solve this problem.
The government of the republic, "Vostokredmet" SE multiple times applied for aid to the International Agency on atomic energy. There they sympathized with us, promised to find sponsors. Experts were sent twice to get convinced in the reality of the problem, they invited to the conference. A score of radiometer were passed for "Vostokredmet". Well, we are grateful even for this. We expect real help from Russia though its own problems with radioactive wastes which executes regular control over radiation climate on tail repositories areas and performs current jobs on repairs. For these purposes up to 10-12 thousand $ are spent annually. But it is a small sum and the stingy budget of the enterprise doesn't afford anymore.
The matter is that beforehand when the combine worked at its full capacity the prime cost of each kilogramme of the uranium extracted included the resources for recultivation of polluted territories. But for the last ten years uranium processing capacities practically stand idle if not to take into account rare insignificant orders for processing small batches of raw stuffs from Kazakhstan. Thereupon, expenses for the maintenance of tail repositories are factually a direct loss for the combine being incumbent with this burden in disfavour of the development of production.