 In conjunction with the beginnings of diamond production, the urban-type settlement of Udachny was founded in 1968; town status was granted to it in 1987.As part of a plan to create the basin for a tailings dam for the nearby diamond mine, a 1.7 kiloton atomic bomb was detonated underground near Udachny on October 2, 1974.Original plans had called for eight similar explosions to be conducted; however, due to radioactive fallout being far greater than expected, the project was halted after the first blast.