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Closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site, 1991

On 29 August 1991, forty-two years after the first test there, Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree closing the Semipalatinsk Test Site.

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Dates
29 Aug 1991
Place
Semipalatinsk Test Site

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  1. 29 Aug 1991 Closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site, 1991
Proof 5 sources
  1. The lasting toll of Semipalatinsk's nuclear testing (Togzhan Kassenova), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 28 Sep 2009. Scholarship & press
    Days later, two million people signed a petition to close the testing site. President Nazarbayev supported the effort and officially signed the decree to close the site forever on August 29, 1991, exactly 42 years after the first nuclear explosion took place there.
    President Nazarbayev supported the effort and officially signed the decree to close the site forever on August 29, 1991, exactly 42 years after the first nuclear explosion took place there.
    In 1991, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev officially closed the site and ordered that medical help and compensation be provided to those suffering from illness due to testing.
  2. Closure of Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site is a historical decision of Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazinform), Kazakhstan Today, 29 Aug 2019. Scholarship & press
    In his speeches Nursultan Nazarbayev has always emphasized that the closure of the Semipalatinst Nuclear Test Site is the fulfillment of the will of Kazakhstani people.
    On August 29, 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev inked the Decree #409 of the President of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic "On closing the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site".
    Nuclear weapons testing has been carried out in the territory of the Kazakh SSR since 1949. Approximately 500 nuclear explosions were fired during this period which occurred to be harmful for people’s health and lives.
  3. Kazakhstan renounced nuclear legacy in spite of tough opposition of the USSR military headquarters: President Nazarbayev, Tengrinews.kz, 29 Aug 2012. Scholarship & press
    Regardless of the tough opposition on the part of the then USSR military industry leadership I signed a decree to close down the Semipalatinsk-based nuclear testing site.
    The Day was suggested by Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly and was unanimously adopted in a resolution dated December 2009.
  4. Partisans, Plutonium, and the Polygon: The Domestic and Global Impact of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement (MA thesis), Carleton University, Ottawa, 2024. Scholarship & press
    According to Togzhan Kassenova, the Kazakh government was anxious that the protest would create unrest in the republic. In the spur of the moment, Nazarbayev signed a presidential decree that formally closed the Semipalatinsk Test Site on August 29.
  5. How Kazakhstan Fought Back Against Soviet Nuclear Tests (Togzhan Kassenova), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 14 Feb 2022. Scholarship & press
    Finally, when the turmoil in Moscow reached its peak after a failed coup against Gorbachev, Kazakhstan’s government unilaterally shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site and banned all tests in its territory.
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