Sarov Саров | |
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 Bell tower of Sarov Monastery | |
.svg) Coat of arms | |
Location of Sarov  | |
  Sarov Location of Sarov Show map of Russia.svg) Sarov Sarov (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast) Show map of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast | |
| Coordinates:54°56′N43°19′E / 54.933°N 43.317°E /54.933; 43.317 | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Nizhny Novgorod Oblast[1] |
| Founded | 1691 |
| Town status since | 1954 |
| Elevation | 160 m (520 ft) |
| • Subordinated to | town of oblast significance of Sarov[1] |
| • Capital of | town of oblast significance of Sarov[1] |
| • Urban okrug | Sarov Urban District (closed administrative territorial object)[2] |
| • Capital of | Sarov Urban Okrug[2] |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (MSK [3]) |
| Postal code(s)[4] | 607188 |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 83130[5] |
| OKTMO ID | 22704000001 |
| Website | www |
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Sarov (Russian:Саро́в) is aclosed town inNizhny Novgorod Oblast,Russia. It was known asGorkiy-130 (Горький-130) andArzamas-16 (Арзама́с-16), after a (somewhat) nearby town ofArzamas,[7] from 1946 to 1991. Until 1995, it was known asKremlyov/Kremlev/Kremljov (Кремлёв).[8] The town is closed as it is the Russian center for nuclear research. Population: 92,047 (2010 Census); 87,652 (2002 Census)[9]
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The history of the town can be divided into two different periods. In the earlier history of Russia it was known as one of the holy places of the Russian Orthodox Church, because of its monastery, that gave Russia one of its greatest saints,Saint Seraphim. Since the 1940s, it has gradually become the center for research and production of Soviet and later Russian nuclear weapons.
The history of human settlement in the area around Sarov goes back at least to the 12th–13th centuries, when a largeMordvin settlement was founded on its spot. In 1298, the town was taken over byTatars.
The modern town took its name from being the site of theSarov Monastery next to theSarov River. In 1664, an Orthodox monk Theodosius first settled on the Sarov hill. The first Church of Sarov tenement was founded in 1706. Saint Seraphim was living in Sarov from 1778 to 1833. In 1903, the monastery was visited byTsarNicholas II and other members of the royal family. At that time the monastery had nine churches, including one underground. Around 320 monks lived in the monastery.
In 1923, the monastery was closed, and the monks were executed by the Bolsheviks. During World War II, the monastery buildings were used as factories for producing rockets forBM-13 "Katyusha" rocket launchers.
In 1946, theAll-Union Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics—anuclear weapons design facility that would become known in the West under theacronymVNIIEF—was built.[10] Sarov became aclosed city. It was removed from all unclassified maps. Initial provisional names included Base 112, Site 550, Yasnogorsk, Kremlyev and Arzamas-75.[11] Sarov was known as Arzamas-16 until 1995. In 1954, Arzamas-16 was granted town status.[citation needed]
The town is home to the Russian Federation Nuclear Center and "Atomic Bomb" museum which has a number of casings of Soviet-era nuclear weapons and photographs of those involved in their production. The main access is by train, which, after a security stop and inspection, is allowed into the town to disembark passengers. The smallSarov Airport is generally for government aircraft only, and visitors usually fly toNizhny Novgorod airport and then drive.
The town is surrounded by fences patrolled by the military. Foreigners, and even Russians who do not live in Sarov, are not allowed to enter the town without permission. Foreigners who visit on business must surrender their passports, phones, and cameras to security while they are in the facility, though some documentary filmmakers have shot footage inside the town walls.
A large portion of the town is located on the grounds of the P.G.S. State Park in adjacentTemnikovsky District of theRepublic of Mordovia.[citation needed]
In 1993, the town became asister city toLos Alamos, New Mexico, the home of the U.S. nuclear weapons design laboratory (Los Alamos National Laboratory, or LANL). Scientists from LANL and VNIIEF have cooperated on variousarms control andnuclear safeguards programs, under which the Los Alamos scientists learned, to their amusement, that their Russian colleagues paid homage to their American rivals by irreverently calling their own laboratory "Los Arzamas."[12]
Boris Yeltsin changed the town's name back to Sarov at the request of the residents in August 1995.
On 17 June 1997, a Russian Federal Nuclear Center senior researcher Alexandr Zakharov received a fatal dose of 4850 rem in acriticality accident.[13][14]
Today, the Russian federal nuclear center is responsible for important decisions concerning the development, production, storage, and utilization of nuclear weapons; the recycling of radioactive and other materials; and research in fundamental and applied physics. International foundations have helped to fund some research scientists in Sarov following the downsizing and transitions after the Soviet era. The city's fences and the electrified fences around fissile stores are maintained. In 1998, a resident stated that the perimeter fences also kept the city free from organized crime.[15]
During the2010 Russian wildfires, the Russian Army took preventive forest fire measures and radioactive material was reported to have been secured elsewhere.[16]
On 12 August 2019, flags in Sarov were lowered tohalf-mast during the viewing of five coffins in Sarov's main square.[17] These were the bodies of fiveRosatom workers who were killed during theNyonoksa radiation accident that happened on 8 August 2019 nearSeverodvinsk at theState Central Navy Testing Range, which is the mainrocket launching site of theRussian Navy.[18] Later, the bodies of the Rosatom workers, who were involved in the development and testing of the9M730 Burevestnik (Petrel) also known as by theNATO reporting name SSC-X-9Skyfall, were buried in Sarov's main cemetery.[17]
Within theframework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as thetown of oblast significance of Sarov—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of thedistricts.[1] As amunicipal division, the town of oblast significance of Sarov is incorporated asSarov Urban Okrug.[2]
Sarov istwinned with:
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