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Whatever the cause of the wasteland, a few years after the disaster, the government sent death squads of prisoners to cover up the contaminated soil with sand. The workers were housed in special barracks, and many probably died from intense doses of radiation. Sometime after Tumerman's visit, Soviet authorities seem to have completely given up on the region, evacuating all farmers, destroying their houses and fencing the area off with barbed wire. Finally, officials decided to use the devastated zone as a radiological training ground for army troops.