26 Stefan Guth
director of the PGMK, declared agriculture a top priority: “I tell you,
straight from the podium, that this effort is necessary, and that it does not
represent some kind of ‘hobby’, as some comrades apparently think,” he proclaimed single-mindedly in front of the Combine’s assembled workers’ collective. 47 The allure of the project was further enhanced by the fact that the
PGMK already produced large quantities of fertilizers from the by-products
of uranium mining, thereby providing yet another puzzle piece for the
agro-industrial complex. Nevertheless, the project stalled once it became
clear that the desalination capacity of the nuclear complex was insufficient
to sustain large-scale agriculture in addition to supplying the city and its
industries, and enhancing the nuclear complex was considered too costly.
Some thought was given to the construction of canals or pipelines to divert
water from the Emba and Amu Darya rivers, but these projects did not carry
the same showcase value. 48
As little was heard of the project thereafter, MAEK’s representatives were
left with a few greenhouses to demonstrate the agricultural potential of
nuclear-powered water desalination, 49 though this did not stop the technologists from dreaming about upscaling the nuclear oasis. Up to this point,
they had wrested “no more than a tiny plot of land” from the desert, they
admitted. “But the time will come when we turn all of it into a flowering
garden. And the conquest of hostile space [pokorenie surovogo prostranstva] will
proceed from here on, from the city that has already become a legend.” 50
Amalgamating technological and environmental features, they envisioned
that a few decades into the future, there would be “groves and cities, […]
lakes, fountains, factories [and] four-lane highways” all over the peninsula. 51
The “Mangyshlak precedent” was not to remain limited to the peninsula,
but was expected to find broad application in other regions of the country
and, potentially, worldwide. 52 Prominent exponents of the Soviet nuclear
sector, such as Anatolii Aleksandrov, proposed the construction of a number
of large-scale nuclear water desalination plants along the USSR’s arid southern flank from Crimea to Vladivostok. 53 Third World countries were also
targeted as potential beneficiaries and customers of the technology. 54
Conversely, Mangyshlak was expected to benefit from large-scale envirotechnical development projects on the all-union level. In the mid-1970s,
the Siberian river diversion project breathed new life into the vision of transforming the Mangyshlak desert into arable land. One of its variants envisioned a canal that would traverse and irrigate the Mangyshlak peninsula
before flowing into the Caspian Sea. Again, the atom was to play an eminent
part in this large-scale reconstruction of nature: nuclear explosions were to
excavate the bed of the new river, and in places where the water needed to
flow uphill, large reactor farms were planned to provide electricity for gigantic pumping stations. 55 Atomic minister Slavskii himself envisioned a series
of cascading water basins across the Kazakh steppes, created by PNE, and a
number of nuclear test explosions carried out on Mangyshlak in 1969–1970
have retrospectively been associated with the project. 56
director of the PGMK, declared agriculture a top priority: “I tell you,
straight from the podium, that this effort is necessary, and that it does not
represent some kind of ‘hobby’, as some comrades apparently think,” he proclaimed single-mindedly in front of the Combine’s assembled workers’ collective. 47 The allure of the project was further enhanced by the fact that the
PGMK already produced large quantities of fertilizers from the by-products
of uranium mining, thereby providing yet another puzzle piece for the
agro-industrial complex. Nevertheless, the project stalled once it became
clear that the desalination capacity of the nuclear complex was insufficient
to sustain large-scale agriculture in addition to supplying the city and its
industries, and enhancing the nuclear complex was considered too costly.
Some thought was given to the construction of canals or pipelines to divert
water from the Emba and Amu Darya rivers, but these projects did not carry
the same showcase value. 48
As little was heard of the project thereafter, MAEK’s representatives were
left with a few greenhouses to demonstrate the agricultural potential of
nuclear-powered water desalination, 49 though this did not stop the technologists from dreaming about upscaling the nuclear oasis. Up to this point,
they had wrested “no more than a tiny plot of land” from the desert, they
admitted. “But the time will come when we turn all of it into a flowering
garden. And the conquest of hostile space [pokorenie surovogo prostranstva] will
proceed from here on, from the city that has already become a legend.” 50
Amalgamating technological and environmental features, they envisioned
that a few decades into the future, there would be “groves and cities, […]
lakes, fountains, factories [and] four-lane highways” all over the peninsula. 51
The “Mangyshlak precedent” was not to remain limited to the peninsula,
but was expected to find broad application in other regions of the country
and, potentially, worldwide. 52 Prominent exponents of the Soviet nuclear
sector, such as Anatolii Aleksandrov, proposed the construction of a number
of large-scale nuclear water desalination plants along the USSR’s arid southern flank from Crimea to Vladivostok. 53 Third World countries were also
targeted as potential beneficiaries and customers of the technology. 54
Conversely, Mangyshlak was expected to benefit from large-scale envirotechnical development projects on the all-union level. In the mid-1970s,
the Siberian river diversion project breathed new life into the vision of transforming the Mangyshlak desert into arable land. One of its variants envisioned a canal that would traverse and irrigate the Mangyshlak peninsula
before flowing into the Caspian Sea. Again, the atom was to play an eminent
part in this large-scale reconstruction of nature: nuclear explosions were to
excavate the bed of the new river, and in places where the water needed to
flow uphill, large reactor farms were planned to provide electricity for gigantic pumping stations. 55 Atomic minister Slavskii himself envisioned a series
of cascading water basins across the Kazakh steppes, created by PNE, and a
number of nuclear test explosions carried out on Mangyshlak in 1969–1970
have retrospectively been associated with the project. 56